From 2 to 4 July 2025, the VII Symposium of the Discourse and Society Studies Association (EDiSo) took place in Bilbao, held for the first time in the Basque Country. Under the title “Transversalities, Crossings and Peripheries: Methodological Approaches in 21st Century Discourse and Society Studies”, the symposium offered a vibrant space for exploring contemporary ways of researching the relationship between discourse and society. The programme stood out for its commitment to creative, collaborative and participatory methods, as well as for incorporating digital, ethnographic and experimental approaches, reflecting a wide range of perspectives and research commitments. One of the key features of the symposium was its epistemic and methodological diversity. Both points have become identity signs of the new Directive, chosen in Valladolid in 2023 copresided by Yvette Bürki (University of Bern) and Carmen López Ferrero (Universitat Pompeu Fabra). The local committee, chaired by Agurtzane Elorduy (UPV), organised various complementary activities that enriched the symposium experience, including a session with feminist bertsolaris, which combined poetic improvisation in Basque with a critical reflection on gender, language, and academia.
Contributions addressed themes such as linguistic activism, education, political discourse, digital media, and language ideologies using intersectional and transformative approaches. Transversality was evident in the intersections between language and other social dimensions—such as gender, class, migration or age—as well as in the articulation of discourse analysis with concrete social practices, from classrooms to social movements.
Particularly noteworthy were the contributions developed in sociolinguistic contexts that reflect the multilingual reality of the Spanish state—such as Galicia, the Basque Country and Catalonia—as well as others that have historically been considered peripheral or marginal within academia due to epistemic, linguistic and economic inequalities. A strong representation of researchers from Latin America contributed to challenging dominant epistemologies and to reinforcing links between social and linguistic justice.
🎤 EDiSo Plenary
Epistemic diversity was also present in the three plenary lectures, which reflected the dual soul of EDiSo—critical sociolinguistic research and discourse analysis—while highlighting connections with Latin American and Basque contexts:
- Virginia Unamuno (UNSAM, Argentina): Beyond Critique: Experiences and Reflections on Co-lab Research
- Jone Miren Hernández (UPV/EHU, Basque Country): Sociolinguistics Undone. Non-knowledge in a Knowledge Community
- Germán Canale (Universidad de la República, Uruguay): Multimodality and Ethnography: Transversalities, Crossings and Peripheries in the Agenda of Critical Discourse Studies
Two of these plenary speakers—Unamuno and Hernández—are also members of the EquiLing project, whose collective participation in the symposium was particularly significant.
🛠️ Research Committee Workshop
The EDiSo Research Committee also organised the following hands-on session:
- Indisciplinades: a feminist and queer toolbox to (de/re)construct language
Coordinator: Daniel Amarello (EDiSo Research Committee)
🎯 EquiLing Closes a Cycle: Presentation of Final Results
Within this context, the research project EquiLing: Critical Language Awareness and Speaker Agency. Participatory Research for Sociolinguistic Equality presented its final outcomes after five years of coordinated work among research teams based in Catalonia, Galicia, Madrid and the Basque Country.
The project proposed a transformative theoretical and methodological framework to understand how language reproduces inequality—and how this can be counteracted through speaker agency. This framework focused on three main dimensions: the unequal distribution of linguistic resources, the unequal recognition of speakers, and the unequal participation in social life. Key concepts included critical language awareness, language surveillance, speaker transformative agency and linguistic citizenship.
Based on this framework, the project conducted ethnographic analysis in formal and informal educational settings—such as high schools, universities, cultural associations and grassroots movements—designing and implementing transformative actions with participants through collaborative methodologies such as Participatory Action Research (PAR). These outcomes were translated into concrete pedagogical proposals to foster linguistic coexistence, speaker recognition and a more just and inclusive sociolinguistic order.
🧠EquiLing Panels at the Symposium
The project’s collective findings were presented in two thematic panels:
- 🧠Justizia soziolinguistikorako kontzientziazio-guneak / Awareness Spaces for Sociolinguistic Justice, coordinated by Luisa MartĂn Rojo, Joan Pujolar and EstĂbaliz Amorrortu
- 🔄 Desberdintasun soziolinguistikoa irauli ikerketa ekintza eta agentzia eraldatzailearen bitartez / Reversing Sociolinguistic Inequality through Action-Research and Transformative Agency, coordinated by Jone Goirigolzarri Garaizar (University of Deusto) and Miren Otxotorena Aranguren
đź“š Recent Publications
As a result of this collective work, EquiLing has produced a set of open-access academic publications, including two recent special issues directly linked to the work presented in the panels:
- A special issue of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language (No. 291, 2025), edited by MartĂn Rojo, Joan Pujolar and EstĂbaliz Amorrortu
→ Access the issue - A special issue of Language Policy, edited by Jone Goirigolzarri and Lara Alonso
📽️ Participatory Documentaries
The symposium also featured the screening of four participatory documentaries created by the project’s regional teams, all available in open access:
- Desata las lenguas: lengua y desigualdad social (Madrid)
→ Watch on YouTube - Participar en la lengua, compartir la lengua (Basque Country)
→ Watch on YouTube - Linguas e Máscaras (Galicia)
A four-minute video creation entirely developed by teachers and students, blending creativity, sociolinguistic reflection and classroom-based resistance. - Vincles: New Speakers, New Bonds (Catalonia)
Testimonies from informal Catalan learners involved in a grassroots language exchange programme.
📦 Other Project Resources:
- Project website: www.equiling.eu
- Educational materials and workshop designs: EquiLing Resources
- UNED radio programmes on language and social justice: Listen on MIRCoUAM
- Lenguas callejeras (Octaedro, available in Spanish and English):
→ Spanish version
→ English version
đź“Ť Next EDiSo Symposium: Salamanca 2027
The final session of the symposium announced that the next EDiSo Symposium will be held in Salamanca in 2027. See you there!
