Updates & News

Updates & News

Dates and Events

International Conference on Corpus Linguistics ICAME47 at the University of Koblenz: Language Research Meets Artificial Intelligence

From 26 to 30 May 2026, the University of Koblenz hosted the 47th International Conference of the International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English (ICAME47). Under the theme “ICAME47: A Confluence of Corpus Research in the Age of AI,” almost 180 researchers from 29 countries across all continents gathered to discuss current developments and future perspectives in computer-assisted language research.

The conference focused on innovative approaches at the intersection of English corpus linguistics and artificial intelligence (AI). Large Language Models (LLMs), which today power applications such as chatbots, machine translation services, and speech recognition systems, are trained on vast collections of written and spoken language, also known as corpora. These corpora, which have been developed and analysed in corpus linguistics for decades, provide a foundation for modern AI applications while simultaneously opening up new perspectives for linguistic research.

The long-established conference is regarded as one of the leading international events in the field of English corpus linguistics. The scientific programme featured four plenary lectures by internationally renowned scholars, five specialised workshops, and around 150 peer-reviewed research presentations, poster sessions, and software demonstrations. Thematically, the conference covered a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from corpus and computational linguistics to natural language processing, data science, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and second language acquisition, all in the context of current developments in artificial intelligence.

Among the key research themes were the analysis of the language produced by Large Language Models (LLMs), the identification and examination of linguistic features that distinguish AI-generated texts from human-written texts, and the investigation of (AI-generated) misinformation and fake news on social media, including methods for their automated detection and tracking. Other contributions explored the use of AI-based methods for the processing and analysis of historical language data. These examples illustrate only a small part of the wide range of research topics presented at the conference.

The plenary speakers were Laurence Anthony (Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan), Jonathan Culpeper (Lancaster University, England), Jane Stuart-Smith (University of Glasgow, Scotland), and Natalia Levshina (Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands). In their keynote lectures, they highlighted current developments in corpus linguistics and AI research, as well as the growing integration of these two fields. The award for the best poster presentation by an early-career researcher was presented to Xingni Li of the University of Oxford, while the award for the best conference paper presentation was awarded to Cheryl Yeo of the Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich.

Beyond the scientific programme, the conference offered numerous opportunities for international exchange and networking. The social programme included a conference warming on the Fortress Ehrenbreitstein, a river cruise through the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage region, and a festive conference dinner in Koblenz’s historic old town. The overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants highlighted both the academic quality of the event and the attractiveness of Koblenz as a conference venue.

“The ICAME47 conference has demonstrated impressively how closely corpus linguistics, digital language research, and artificial intelligence are interconnected today. At the same time, it provided an excellent opportunity to strengthen international research networks and to showcase the University of Koblenz as a centre for innovative linguistic research,” concluded Andreas Weilinghoff, Junior Professor of English Linguistics and head of the international organising committee.

The conference was organised by an interdisciplinary team from the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Koblenz. With the successful hosting of ICAME47, the University of Koblenz continues the long-standing tradition of the international conference series, which has been held since 1977, while further strengthening its international profile in the field of digital language research. Previous conferences were held in Vigo, Spain (ICAME45), and Vilnius, Lithuania (ICAME46). The next edition of the conference series, ICAME48, will take place from 18 to 22 May 2027 in Helsinki, Finland.

Successful pitch for GAPS annual conference 2027

From 14–16 May 2026, three of our staff members – Nicole Maruo-Schröder, Silke Stroh and Ronja Quast – were in Osnabrück to attend this year’s annual conference and AGM of the Gesellschaft für Anglophone Postkoloniale Studien (GAPS / Association for Anglophone Postcolonial Studies). They presented our application to host next year’s GAPS conference in Koblenz, and the bid was successful. Our topic will be “Postcolonial Bodies”; the dates are 6–8 May 2027; and we look forward to a lively crowd of international researchers and writers. Students are also most welcome to attend! So please save the date and watch this space – the call for papers and the conference website will go online later this year.

Upcoming Conference

Together with the Department of German Studies, the Department of English and American Studies co-hosts the international conference “Exploring Bodies and Corporeality in Travel Literature.” It will take place from November 25 to 26, 2025. On the first day of the conference, a photo exhibition with works of Trui Hanoulle will open. The conference marks the opening of the "Koblenz Research Unit Body - Travel - Literature," which will continue and expand the work of the DFG-funded Research Network "Traveling Bodies."

Participation is free (we kindly ask you to register). Further information can be found on the conference webpage.

Kick-off: Three new research areas are funded by the federal research initiative of Rhineland-Palatinate

Three new interdisciplinary research projects are being funded by the federal state of RLP: „Selbstregulation interdisziplinär weiter:denken, Schlüsselkompetenz in sich verändernden Lern- und Lebenswelten“ (on self-regulation and how it can be promoted in different educational contexts), „Transition und Transgression: fluide Geschlechterbewegungen“ (about fluid constructions of gender and transitions between/ transgressions of fixed gender structures), and „Spielend Gesellschaft bilden – SpieGelBild“ (how games construct social structures and identities). We are happy that our department is part of two of these research projects: Professor Constanze Juchem-Grundmann works in the project on self-regulation and Professor Nicole Maruo-Schröder is part of the project on transitions and transgressions with regard to gender.

More information (in German) can be found here.

Next KL-Meeting
3 December 2025, 12.15 (F 144)

Next Meeting of the Leitungskollegium (LeiKo):
t.b.d.

Important Information – Exams

Exams in M 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 

Professor Dr. Michael Meyer will still read your term papers and take your oral exams if you attended one of his courses. Exams based on courses taken with PD Dr. Simone Broders, Dr. Jody Skinner and Maria Mothes will be graded by other examiners, depending on the topic area. 

Exams in M 4.1 (Mothes)

If you have taken the M4.1 course with Maria Mothes and have either not yet taken the M4 examination in the B.Ed. English or have not passed it yet, please contact Dr. Sarah Schäfer-Althaus (salthaus@uni-koblenz.de), who will review the essays.

Exams in M 4.2 (courses up until winter term 2023/2024), new examiner

If you have taken the M4.2 course in previous semesters with the lecturers Pleyer, Busch, Lensch or Axer and have either not yet taken the M4 examination in the B.Ed. English or have not yet passed it, please contact JProf Dr. Andreas Weilinghoff (weilinghoff@uni-koblenz.de), who will review the essays. If you have any questions, please contact the module coordinator for M4, Dr. Sarah Schäfer-Althaus (salthaus@uni-koblenz.de) at any time.

New Publications

Sarah Buschfeld, Patricia Ronan, Theresa Neumaier, Andreas Weilinghoff and Lisa Westermeyer, eds. Crossing Boundaries through Corpora – Innovative corpus approaches within and beyond linguistics, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2024.

Soon available in our library.

Abbildung des Buch-Covers

Announcements

November 2025

International Conference: "Exploring Bodies and Corporeality in Travel Writing"
Conference organizers: Prof. Dr. Nicole Maruo-Schröder & Prof. Dr. Uta Schaffers
When: November 25-26, 2025
Where: Campus

The conference will take place as part of the founding of the research unit Körper · Reise · Literatur / Body · Travel · Literature at the University of Koblenz. We invite papers that address the topic of the body and corporeality in travel writing. The focus should be on texts that are based on actual journeys and therefore feature an inscribed habitus of experience and 'authenticity'. For more information, please click here.