Plenary Speakers

Suzanne Kemmer, Rice University
Associate Professor of Linguistics, Rice University. Undergraduate Major Adviser, Linguistics, Divisional Adviser, Social Sciences, Sid Richardson College. She obtained her PhD in Linguistics at Stanford University in 1987-88. Her research interests are cognitive linguistics, language universals and typology, semantics/pragmatics, language change, Germanic languages, Nilo-Saharan Languages, African Languages, Austronesian languages. Professor Kemmer is the former President of the International Cognitive Linguistics Assocition.
Suzanne Kemmer's homepage

Vyvyan Evans, University of Sussex
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, University of Sussex. He received his PhD in general linguistics from Georgetown University (Washington DC) in December 2000. He has been a member of faculty in Linguistics and English Language at Sussex since August 2001. His research relates to the 'school' of linguistics and cognitive science known as Cognitive Linguistics. He specialises in cognitive semantics, particularly conceptual structure, conceptual projection, lexical semantics, the semantics of grammar and semantic change. Dr. Evans is the current Vice-president of the United Kingdom Cognitive Linguistics Association.
Vyvyan Evans's homepage

Chris Sinha, University of Portsmouth
Professor of Psychology of Language, University of Portsmouth. He gained his doctorate at the University of Utrecht. His central research interest is in the relations between language, cognition and culture, and a main aim of his research is to integrate cognitive linguistic with socio-cultural approaches to language and communication. He has published widely in many disciplines, including anthropology, linguistics, education, evolutionary biology, connection science, as well as developmental and cultural psychology. Professor Sinha is the current President of the United Kingdom Cognitive Linguistics Association.
Chris Sinha's homepage

Seana Coulson, University of California, San Diego
Assistant Professor, Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego. She obtained her PhD in Cognitive Science at University of California San Diego in 1997. Her research interests are analogical reasoning, cognitive electrophysiology, conceptual blending, counterfactual reasoning, frame semantics, human brain mapping, human knowledge representation, pragmatic language comprehension, rhetorical theory, right hemisphere language capacity. Professor Coulson is on the Editorial Board of a number of scholarly journals, such as Cognitive Linguistics.
Seana Coulson's homepage

Jordan Zlatev, Lund University, Sweden
Jordan Zlatev is Associate Professor in General Linguistics at the Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Sweden. His PhD thesis (Stockholm University, 1997) is the monograph Situated Embodiment: Studies in the Emergence of Spatial Meaning and he has worked at the universities of Stockholm, Lund and Umeå and has also been teaching and doing research in Denmark and Thailand. He is the co-founder of the annual international workshop series Epigenetic Robotics: Modelling Cognitive Development on Robotic Systems and the bi-annual conference Language, Culture and Mind. Professor Zlatev collaborates extensively with semioticians, cognitive scientists and philosophers within the project Language, Gestures and Pictures in Semiotic Development and more recently within the highly interdisciplinary EU-project Stages in the Evolution and Development of Sign Use (SEDSU). He has published extensively in journals such as Minds and Machines, Evolution of Communication Journal and in several collaborative volumes, and is currently working on the monograph Bodily Mimesis and the Grounding of Language and co-editing the book The Shared Mind: Perspectives on Intersubjectivity.
Jordan Zlatev’s homepage

Sven Strömqvist, Lund University, Sweden
Sven Strömqvist has been Professor of Language Acquisition at Lund University and also affiliate professor of the Center for Reading Research, Stavanger since 1999. His research interests are Language, communication and thought; Language Learning; Speech and Writing. He has led several research projects, including The Dynamics of Production and Perception during Text Writing (Swedish Research Council, 2001-) and European Cultural Heritage Online (with several European partners, including three Max Planck institutes; 5th Framework Programme). One current project that Professor Strömqvist is engaged in is Language, Gestures and Pictures in the Perspective of Semiotic Development, which studies how three basic semiotic systems relate to one another, focusing on both ontogenetic and phylogenetic development. Professor Strömqvist has been a guest researcher at various universities, is on the editorial boards of several international journals, and has received a number of scientific awards. He is the former Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities at Lund University.
Sven Strömqvist's homepage