IACS Mid-Term Symposium 2027 · Cluj-Napoca
International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS) Babeș-Bolyai University STAR-UBB Institute of Advanced Studies in Science and Technology Faculty of History and Philosophy, Babeș-Bolyai University Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Babeș-Bolyai University

Call for Papers · The First IACS Mid-Term Symposium 2027

Minds Without Bodies?

Bridging Perception, Semiosis, and Intelligence: Humans, Animals, Machines

We are delighted to announce the inaugural Mid-Term Symposium of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS), to be hosted by Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, through the Faculty of History and Philosophy, the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences and the STAR-UBB Institute.

Founded in Aarhus in 2013, IACS aims to establish cognitive semiotics as the transdisciplinary study of meaning, combining concepts, theories and methods from the humanities and the social and natural sciences. Since its first conference in Lund in 2014, the association has held biennial conferences in Lublin (2016), Toronto (2018), Aachen (2022, online), Lund (2024) and Rome (2026). The Cluj symposium introduces a new format of IACS meeting. The initiative emerged from discussions at IACS-6 in Rome on the current development and future of cognitive semiotics and the need for more frequent scholarly exchange between biennial conferences. Mid-term symposia will be smaller-scale meetings devoted to a specific research theme.

Invited speakers

  • Filomena Diodato Sapienza University of Rome
  • Claudio Paolucci University of Bologna
  • Jordan Zlatev Lund University

Symposium overview

Can there be minds without bodies? Artificial intelligence has made this old question urgent again. Large language models (LLMs) produce fluent text and seemingly intelligent behaviour, yet lack a living body and direct perceptual engagement with a world. This raises fundamental questions for the embodied, enactive, biosemiotic and phenomenological traditions in the study of mind, which have long held that meaning is grounded in perception, action, affectivity and intersubjectivity, in the lived body of an organism engaged with its environment. Do such systems therefore fall short of meaning, or do they show that meaning depends on the body less than these traditions supposed? The symposium leaves this question open. Research on animal cognition complicates the picture from another direction, documenting forms of embodied meaning-making that are far from rudimentary yet still differ from those underlying human language and symbolic thought.

Cognitive semiotics, as the transdisciplinary study of meaning-making drawing on semiotics, philosophy, linguistics and cognitive science, provides a framework for approaching these questions. We invite contributions addressing the relations between perception, semiosis and intelligence in humans, other animals and machines. The symposium is organized around the following lines of inquiry.

Lines of inquiry

  1. What does meaning require of a body?
  2. On what evidence do we attribute minds?
  3. How should we understand animal minds?
  4. Who speaks when a machine speaks?
  5. What does language reveal about meaning-making in humans and machines?
  6. How does metaphor mediate between body, perception and abstract meaning?
  7. How is intersubjective experience constituted, and can it be simulated?
  8. What becomes of creativity and expression when meaning is detached from a living body?
  9. What is cognitive semiotics, and what does it imply about the possibility of artificial meaning?

We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions from cognitive semiotics and intersecting fields, including philosophy, linguistics, metaphor studies, psychology, biosemiotics, ethology, computer science and cultural studies.

Topics of interest

Contributions may address, among others:

  • Embodiment, enaction and the sensorimotor grounding of meaning, knowledge and language
  • Perception, affectivity and the origins and evolution of semiosis
  • Metaphor, gesture and multimodal communication
  • Enunciation, discourse and subjectivity
  • Consciousness, intersubjectivity and social cognition
  • Animal cognition and zoosemiotics
  • Language, understanding and simulation in artificial systems
  • Creativity, expression and extended versus artificial agency
  • Semiotic mediation and methods in cognitive semiotics

Submission guidelines

Submissions are welcome from established and early-career researchers alike. If you are an early-career researcher (i.e., at the level of Master’s, doctoral or postdoctoral), please indicate this when submitting your abstract. If you would like to be considered for a poster session, please specify this in your submission.

Abstract length
300–500 words (excluding references).
Keywords
Please include 3–5 keywords.
Biographical note
A brief bio (max. 100 words) including institutional affiliation and contact information.
Relevance
Abstracts should make clear how the proposed contribution relates to the theme of the symposium and to cognitive semiotics.
First authorship
Each participant may submit only one abstract as first author.

Deadline: 31 January 2027. Where to submit (portal or e-mail) will be announced soon.

Venue

Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of History and Philosophy (Department of Philosophy)
UBB Main Building, Str. Mihail Kogălniceanu 1, 400084 Cluj-Napoca, Romania · Open in Google Maps ↗

Organizing committee

  • Codruța Hainic Chair Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Center for Applied Philosophy
  • Ion Copoeru Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Center for Applied Philosophy
  • Elena Faur Romanian Academy, “Sextil Pușcariu” Institute of Linguistics and Literary History, Cluj-Napoca
  • Thea Ionescu Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences
  • Alin Olteanu Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University; Institute of Advanced Studies in Science and Technology – STAR-UBB Institute
  • Gina Scarpete Walters University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Department of Writing & Language Studies
  • Floarea Vîrban Accademia Europea di Firenze, CEA CAPA Florence & CET Florence

Secretariat

  • Robert Beres Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of History and Philosophy
  • Anton Crișan Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Center for Applied Philosophy

Scientific committee

  • Alin Olteanu Chair Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University; Institute of Advanced Studies in Science and Technology – STAR-UBB Institute

Other members to be announced.