Tonight, as High Sheriff of Belfast, at their Gala Dinner, I welcomed the participants of the European Communication Research & Education Association Interpersonal Communication and Social Interaction Section Belfast Conference to the City Hall . I spoke on the history of Belfast, the Linen industry, the Shipyards, CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien and the Great War and the revitalisation of Christian virtue in Early Europe by Columbanus and Gall following the decline of the Roman Empire.This was the second ICSI Conference and the hosts for this important event were Professor Owen Hargie and Dr Pauline Irving of the University of Ulster.
This biennial Conference enables academics in the field of interpersonal communication and social interaction to come together for an intensive three-day period to exchange ideas, learn about one another’s research, and develop, maintain and further their networks. The Conference provides members with valuable professional development opportunities, and a forum in which to discover the latest trends in interpersonal communication and social interaction research and pedagogy. The Conference also provides an important occasion for recognising the achievements and contributions of members in the field.
The Belfast Conference is a truly international event. It has attracted wide interest, with 144 paper submissions being received from a total of 32 different countries spanning all 5 continents. In total, 86 papers were accepted. In addition, 19 Poster presentations were accepted. As can be seen from their Programme these represent and reflect a very wide spectrum of topics within the ICSI domain.
The Conference would not have been possible without the support and sponsorship of a range of individuals and bodies, formally acknowledged and thanked them for their contributions. I hoped that the participants enjoyed both the academic and social aspects of the Conference and that they benefited from sharing with fellow scholars in the ICSI field.
Poster Presentations included:
Florencia Alam Fictional accounts interactively produced by dyads of children.
Celia Renata Rosemberg A study with children from urban marginalized populations from Argentina.
Jalifar Alireza Discourse markers in second language interview settings.
Wind Goodfriend At first sight: Superficial stereotypes about children.
Olesyac Gulevich Accuracy of lie recognition: Influence of professional experience
Tom Janisse Explanation to understanding: practices of the highest performing physicians by “art of medicine” patient survey.
Maureen C. LaPerrière Man up! The Irony of the New Media Male Model.
Johanna Makela & Pekka Isotalus Women politicians in the Finnish papers – almost invisible leaders?
Maria Soledad Manrique Verbal interaction as means to reaching a metacognitive approach to training young children’s caretakers on reading comprehension.
Mastewal Adane Mellese Communicating though images: user self presentation behaviour of a social network site.
Eric Opoku Mensah Encoding personal story in political speeches: sources of identification and pathos in selected speeches of Barach Obama.
Shahab Mobasheri Utilizing information theory in content analysis and identifying linguistic tendencies of Persian weblogs in a specific time interval.
Joachim Preusse &Anne Schulze User expectations and perceptions of NGO pages on Facebook. empirical findings from a pioneering study.
Emanuela Recchia Rhetoric and education: a fertile cross.
Kirsi-Marja Making meaning of work based identity construction in
Toivanen-Sevrjukova multicultural organisations.
N. Yuji Suzuki & Tsukasa Yamanaka Language and Social Interaction: The case of a project-based English program in the College of Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical College of Rtisumeiken Univerisity at Biwako- Kusatsu.
Ekaterine Topuria Pragmalinguistic analysis of educational discourse.
Christian von Sikorski Mass media communication and uncertainty reduction in the interaction of persons with and without visual disability – an analysis of physiological activation, eye movements, and general performance
To be continued