Online PIM: EAP in the era of Superdiversity: Opportunities and Challenges
26th February 2027
Heriot-Watt University invites you to a PIM on 26 February 2027. Our theme will be:
EAP in the era of Superdiversity: Opportunities and Challenges
As a concept developed in recent years, superdiversity extends beyond the study of new migrants or population movements across national borders to include interactions between different individuals in the same place and the mobility of resources and people within borders (Blackledge et al., 2018).
We chose the term “superdiversity” as part of the conference theme to encourage EAP researchers and practitioners to actively reflect on, recognize and unpack the heightened complexity of contemporary society. This PIM theme invites the discussion of:
- How do various semiotic resources interact with each other, shaping and being shaped by the current EAP landscape (e.g. translanguaging, multimodality, trans-semiotising)?
- How do EAP teachers, students and stakeholders negotiate their identity and legitimacy within superdiverse contexts?
- How do EAP teachers, students, and stakeholders experience and regulate emotions while navigating tensions within superdiverse contexts?
As organisers working within a transnational university, we particularly welcome abstracts that engage with EAP practices across transnational higher education contexts, where institutions provide education across borders. Such contexts often involve tensions between standardisation, localisation, mobility, and institutional accountability, providing rich opportunities to explore the theme of this conference. However, submissions from all EAP contexts relevant to the conference theme are warmly encouraged.
Plenary speaker info:
Dr. Fan Gabriel Fang holds a PhD from the University of Southampton and is Professor (Practice) at The Education University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on Global Englishes, translanguaging, language policy, intercultural communication, and language education. He has published widely in leading journals, including TESOL Quarterly, System, and World Englishes. His publications include the monograph Re-positioning accent attitude in the Global Englishes paradigm (Routledge) and edited volumes on English-medium instruction (EMI) in multilingual Asian universities.
