We are very sad to announce the passing of Dr. Joseph L. Brent. A semiotician and historian who published the first biography of American Philosopher and “father of pragmatism” Charles Sanders Peirce, died on January 21, 2020, aged 91, from lung cancer. Dr. Brent was the 2006 President of the Semiotic Society of America. The…
Author: Farouk Seif
Farouk Y. Seif, PhD is Professor Emeritus, Antioch University Seattle, former President and Executive Director of the Semiotic Society of America, a registered architect, and an artist. Seif serves as the Editor of the Semiotic Society of America Yearbook. Prior to becoming an American citizen, Seif was born and raised in Egypt with a Coptic background. His main interests are design, semiotics, paradoxes, transdisciplinarity, and transmodernity. His doctoral dissertation “Semiotics and Urban Morphogenesis: Metaphysical Aspects of Ancient Egyptian Monumentality as a Theoretical Approach to Urban Form" designed to reinterpret the Ancient Egyptian experience for thoughtful reflections on contemporary life. Prof. Seif has taught in universities and lectured at conferences worldwide. He was the recipient of the 2010 Fulbright Specialists Program at University of Sofia, Bulgaria. He has authored numerous articles and a dozen book chapters. His book "De-sign in the Transmodern World: Envisioning Reality Beyond Absoluteness" is a state-of-the-art integration of design and semiotics.
IACS4-2020 Final Call for Papers
IACS4-2020 Final Call for PapersThe 4th biennial Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS4) will be held from July 2-4, 2020, in Aachen, Germany. The call for papers for IACS4 has been extended. The submission deadline for theme session proposals is now November 30, 2019. The deadline for abstracts is December 15, 2019….
SSA Yearbook Call for Submissions
Dear Friends and Colleagues, Just a friendly reminder before you retreat for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Please submit your final papers to the Editor of Semiotics: Yearbook of the SSA, Geoffrey Owens at geoffrey.owens@wright.edu by December 16th, 2019. The Yearbook seeks 3,000-to-6,000-word submissions from current SSA members, including 2019 SSA Conference participants. Happy Thanksgiving! Farouk Seif Past President, Semiotic Society of America Fellow,…
Jesper Hoffmeyer (1942–2019)
Dear Friends and Colleagues, It is with deep sorrow that I have to inform you that one of the figures who transformed contemporary semiotics, Jesper Hoffmeyer, passed away on 25 September 2019 at age 77. Hoffmeyer was a professor at the University of Copenhagen’s Institute for Biological Chemistry, a leading figure in Biosemiotics, the President…
President’s Message
Welcome to the 44th SSA Annual Conference Portland, Oregon 2019 It is a special privilege to welcome you to the 44th Annual Conference of the Semiotic Society of America. This year’s theme, “The Semiotics of Borders and the Borders of Semiotics,” has stimulated provocative ideas and inspiring perspectives that have profound implications for our perception and…
44th SSA Conference Packet
44th SSA Annual Conference: Transportation Information
Dear Friends and Colleagues, As you know the 44thAnnual SSA Conference will take place at the Hilton Hotel, Downtown Portland, 921 SW Sixth Avenue, Portland, OR 97204. The following are transportation options from Portland Airport to City Center: Portland Streetcar Tri Met (Red Line) The cost of the ticket is $2.50 one way and the travel time is…
44th SSA Annual Conference: Detailed Program Schedule (Final)
SSA 44th Conference Special Events
Sebeok Award Fellow Address Thinking at the Edges Abstract: The field of semiotic studies requires borders to function as a discipline but as a living science it is essential that those borders be unheeded. Semioticians must be free to roam over the entire range of knowledge for, as Thomas Sebeok observed, semiotics “circumscribes what we…
Keynote & Plenary Speakers, SSA 44th Annual Conference
We are honored to announce that Prof. Beata Stawarska and Prof. Leonard Lawlorare our keynote speakers, and Prof. Daniela Vallega-Neu and Prof. Jamin Pelkey are Plenary Speakers at the SSA 44thAnnual Conference in Portland, Oregon, October 9–13, 2019. Keynote Speakers “Ghostwriting or How to Make an Official Doctrine” Abstract: In my talk I will reconstitute the process of ghostwriting…