Confirmed Conference Plenary Speakers

• 8:30-9:00 China Standard Time
  Opening ceremony. Mark Turner
• 9:00–9:45 China Standard Time    
  LI Kenli. Professor, Department of Computer Science and Technology, Hunan University. Title: Intelligent Ultrasound and its Parallel Processing Technology
• 9:45-10:30 China Standard Time    
  SUN Fuchun. Professor, Department of Computer Science and Technology, Qsinghua University. Title: Research and Development of Cross-modal Learning
• 10:30-11:15 China Standard Time. (2022-11-19 2:30 am UTC; 2022-11-18 9:30 pm EST.)
  Mark Turner. Institute Professor and Professor of Cognitive Science, Case Western Reserve University.  Co-director, the International Distributed Little Red Hen Lab. Title: Conceptual Compressions in Multimodal Communication about Energy
• Break
• 13:45-14:30 China Standard Time.  (2022-11-19 5:45am UTC; 2022-11-19 12:45am EST; 2022-11-19 6:45 am CET.)
  Renata Geld, Associate Professor & Founding Director, Center for Cognitive Science, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia & Nikolina Borčić, Assistant Professor, VERN' University, Zagreb, Croatia. Renata Geld, University of Zagreb & Nikolina Borčić, VERN' University. Title: The Croatian Prime Minister’s Energy
• 14:30-15:15 China Standard Time. (2022-11-19 6:30 am UTC; 2022-11-19 1:30 am EST; 2022-11-19 7:30 am CET.)
  Line Cecile Engh. Associate Professor, History of Ideas. University of Oslo. Title: Divina Energia: A Historical-Conceptual Look at Communication about Energy from Classical Rhetoric to Medieval Liturgy.
• 15:15-16:00 China Standard Time. (2022-11-19 7:15 am UTC; 2022-11-19 2:15 am EST; 2022-11-19 8:15 am CET; 2022-11-19 7:15 am GMT.)
  Anna Wilson. Head of Language Studies and Teaching Fellow & Director of the International Multimodal Communication Centre, Russian and East European Studies Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford.Title: Framings of Energy as “New Normal” and “Next Normal” in Multimodal Communication

Day 2, Sunday, 20 November 2022

• 9:00-9:45 China Standard Time. (2022-11-20 1:00 am UTC; 2022-11-19 8:00 pm EST; Sat, Nov 19, 2022,  3:00 pm HST.)
  Francis Steen. Associate Professor of Communication, University of California Los Angeles. Title: The Work of Emotions
• 9:45-10:30 China Standard Time          
  HE Gang. Assistant Professor, Department of Technology and Society, Stony Brook University. Title: Quantifying the Cost Savings of Global Solar Photovoltaic Supply Chains
• 10:30-11:15 China Standard Time    
  LI Ke. Professor, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Hunan Normal University, Title: Chinese Modernization: A “Dual-Carbon” Strategic Perspective
• Break
• 14:30-15:15 China Standard Time. (2022-11-20 6:30 am UTC; 2022-11-20 1:30 am EST; 2022-11-20 7:30 am CET.)
  Stefka Eriksen. Research Professor, Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU). Title: Energy in the Medieval North: Notions, Access, and Communication
• 15:15-16:00 CST. (2022-11-20 7:15 am UTC; 2022-11-20 2:15 am EST; 2022-11-20 8:15 am CET; 2022-11-20 7:15 am GMT)
  Anders Hougaard. Institute of Language and Communication, University of Southern Denmark. Title: Mythic Energy.
• 16:00-16:10 China Standard Time
  Closing comments.    Mark Turner. Case Western Reserve University.

  Detailed Descriptions of Plenary Talks

  
  

  Opening Ceremony: Download the recording.
  Closing Ceremony: Download the recording.
  LI Kenli. Professor, Department of Computer Science and Technology, Hunan University Bio: Kenli Li (Senior Member, IEEE) received the PhD degree in computer science from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, in 2003. He was a visiting scholar with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2004 to 2005. He is currently a full professor of computer science and technology with Hunan University and deputy director with National Supercomputing Center in Changsha. His major research interests include parallel computing, cloud computing, and Big Data computing. He has published more than 300 papers in international conferences and journals. He serves on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Computers, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Computing, and International Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence. He is an outstanding member of CCF. Title: Intelligent Ultrasound and its Parallel Processing Technology. Download the recording. Abstract: Currently, prenatal diagnosis and birth defect screening are mainly conducted through ultrasound, which are highly dependent on the operator's experience, resulting in a high rate of misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis in fetal malformation screening. The Prenatal Ultrasound Intelligent Quality Control Platform is based on deep learning for cloud-based cross-sectional quality testing, enabling closed-loop quality control of cross-sections throughout the fetal life cycle. Compared with the traditional manual mode, the system can automatically locate standard sections in real time by using parallel distributed technology to improve the efficiency of the model and ensure the real-time clinical demand of standard section positioning, which greatly improves the efficiency of doctors' work and eases the work intensity of ultrasound doctors.
  SUN Fuchun. Professor, Department of Computer Science and Technology, Qsinghua University Bio: Dr. Sun Fuchun is a professor of Computer Science and Technology at Tsinghua University, a PhD supervisor, an IEEE/CAAI/CAA Fellow, and a recipient of the National Outstanding Youth Fund. He is also a member of the overall expert group on robotics of the National Key Research and Development Program, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Society of Artificial Intelligence, Executive Director of the Chinese Society of Automation, Director of the Intelligent Robotics Committee of the Chinese Computer Society, Editor-in-Chief of Cognitive Computation and Systems. His current research interest includes robotic perception and cognition. Title: Research and Development of Cross-Modal Learning. Download the recording. Abstract: This report is based on the Sino-German Science Centre's major international cooperation project "Adaptive, Predictive and Interactive Cross-Modal Learning", which focuses on the dynamic adaptation mechanism of cross-modality, how cross-modal learning and fusion affect generalization and prediction. It further introduces the theoretical and technical achievements of the research team in the areas of modal translation, modal alignment, modal fusion, collaborative computing, and cross-modal perception and manipulation of robots. The report also discusses the implications of cross-modal learning research for the future of education, society, information science and technology, and related fields such as robotics. Finally, the future trends of cross-modal learning are given.
  Mark Turner is Institute Professor and Professor of Cognitive Science, Case Western Reserve University;  Co-director, the International Distributed Little Red Hen Lab Title: Conceptual Compressions in Multimodal Communication about Energy. Download the recording  or view it on YouTube. Abstract: Advanced, higher-order human cognition has the astonishing ability to think far outside local scale, across causation, agency, time, and space (CATS). We can think about the development of modern energy supply and consumption, about energy patterns around the globe, about the future of alternative energy, about national and international energy policy. The principle cognitive mechanism for such distended conception is to create conceptual compressions. These compressions are at a much smaller scale and are much more readily intelligible. We use these compressions as a platform, upon which to stand mentally, to reach up as we strain to make sense of large conceptual networks that would otherwise be intractible to cognition. This talk presents cognitive mechanisms for creating conceptual compressions, patterns of such compressions, and influential compressions in global multimodal communication about energy.
  Renata Geld, Associate Professor &  Founding Director, Center for Cognitive Science, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia Nikolina Borčić Assistant Professor VERN' University, Zagreb, Croatia  Title: The Croatian Prime Minister's Energy. Download the recording. Abstract: The global energy crises and the dramatic spike in natural gas prices, coupled with the upcoming European winter and uncertainties related to the availability as well as affordability of energy, makes energy a powerful topic that affects and shapes our leaders’ political image(s). The topic in question exposes their strengths and weaknesses in planning as well as managing the circumstances that arise from the crisis. In other words, energy as a topic has a huge potential for creating contrast within political discourse, which is by far the most powerful frame for constructing images of power vs. powerlessness. The talk focuses on the Croatian Prime Minister’s communication with journalists and members of the opposition parties in the Parliament. Our discussion of the data selected relies on the typological analysis of the narratives that invoke (verbal and non-verbal realizations of) seven master myths (see Jack Lule 2001). Furthermore, we discuss aspects of multimodal meaning construction by identifying emergent meanings that originate in conceptual blends, as described by Fauconnier and Turner (2002 and elsewhere). Finally, we address the role of the audience, the nature of the social occasion, underlying cultural practices, and dominant patterns in communication that create the leader’s political image. References Fauconnier, G. & Turner, M. 2002. The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities. NY: Basic Books. Lule, J. 2001. Daily News, Eternal Stories: The Mythological Role of Journalism. NY: The Guilford Press.
  Line Cecile Engh is Associate Professor, History of Ideas. University of Oslo. . . . Title: Divina energia. A historical-conceptual look at communication about energy from classical rhetoric to medieval liturgy. Download the recording. Abstract: In our modern world, energy as a topic is primarily associated with science and not with cultural and historical studies (if not the history of science). But if we take a broader view, the concept of energy – what it is, what it means, where it comes from, how we may achieve it – is an important, albeit overlooked topic for scholars of culture, communication, and history. In premodern and pre-industrialized Europe, the concept of energy – in Greek energeia and in Latin energia/enargia – was not primarily about natural (re-)sources, but rather profoundly embedded in the two great vectors/vehicles of multimodal communication and representation in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, namely, rhetoric and liturgy. In classical and medieval rhetoric, energy is a cognitive power – the imaginative power that calls up mental images. In the liturgy, it is divine presence and the transformative excessus of contemplation; for Christian philosophers of Antiquity and the Middle Ages God is energy, the active force in which humans partake through the breath of the Spirit (Palazzo 2020). In this talk, I will interrogate these concepts of energy as human-divine communication, and how this is communicated. And I will ask: In what ways are these concepts of energy related to our concepts of energy today? And how can they be relevant to us in our current crises and our own historical predicament?
  Anna Wilson is Head of Language Studies and Teaching Fellow & Director of the International Multimodal Communication Centre, Russian and East European Studies Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford. Title: Framings of Energy as ‘New Normal’ and ‘Next Normal” in Multimodal Communication. Download the recording. Abstract:  The exploration of how various language forms enable us to express and understand temporal depictions has been of interest to philosophers, linguists, and other scholars from at least the times of Ancient Greece. One big question has concerned the division between the past, present, and future. Aristotle in Book IV of his Physics argues that time is composed of past and future with the present (now) serving as a limit separating the past and future and yet linking them at the same time. Now is always the same in this function, but for “the intellect” it also always different because both are constantly moving. Of all three – present, past, and future – the future seems to be most dependent on this temporal unity and division. Some 800 years after Aristotle, St Augustine in Books X and XI of his Confessions talked about his reliance on ‘impressions of things’, memories of past experiences, beliefs grounded in them, and clues from the present, for imagining possible futures. 1600 years later, in the times of the pandemic and the energy crisis in Europe, we metaphorically construe our present or future as ‘new normal’ and ‘next normal’. We do so by evoking our knowledge of ‘old’ normal and the recent past or the present abnormal. We conceptually integrate normal and abnormal, and present or past normal, in a highly imaginative way to arrive at an understanding of what our present or future ‘new normal’ or ‘next normal’ is. We talk about the European gas crisis as the new normal, the energy crisis as a preventable new normal, energy systems and prices in the new normal, a swift shift from fossil fuels to renewable energies as the new normal of the energy sector, the energy industry strategising for the ‘new normal’, the future of energy as the ‘next normal’, the path to the ‘next normal’ in the renewable energy domain, energy efficiency and the transition to a lower-carbon energy system as the next normal, and so on. This talk explores the emerging concepts of ‘new normal’ and ‘next normal’ as blends (Fauconnier and Turner 2002; Fauconnier and Turner 2008), which enable certain framings of energy-related issues in communication. It investigates the cognitive mechanics of the blends’ reliance on the past-future relation as a unity and as a division. The talk examines integrations of verbal and visual inputs in triggering the blending process and making framings of energy-related matters more intelligible and rhetorically successful. References Fauconnier, Gilles & Mark Turner. 2002. The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending And The Mind's Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books. Fauconnier, Gilles & Mark Turner. 2008. "Rethinking metaphor." Ray Gibbs ed. Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought. 53-66. New York: Cambridge University Press. Kahneman, D., & Miller, D. T. 1986. Norm theory: Comparing reality to its alternatives. Psychological Review, 93(2), 136–153.
  Francis Steen is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of California, Los Angeles. Title: The Work of Emotions. Download the recording. Abstract :Emotions provide a rich repertoire of multimodal communication both internally and externally. Within our embodied minds, we have rich multimodal experiences that form an important dimension of our cognitive processes, regulate our actions, and provide us with insight into complex situations. Socially, we detect emotions in others; in the performing arts, they constitute a vivid dimension of shared experience. In this talk, I present a functional theory of emotion as multimodal simulations, focusing on energy modeling.
  HE Gang. Assistant Professor, Department of Technology and Society, Stony Brook University Bio: Dr. Gang He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University. He received his PhD in energy and resources from University of California at Berkeley. He also holds an MA in climate and society from Columbia University, and a BS in Geography from Peking University. Dr. He’s work focuses on energy systems analysis, energy and climate policy. Title: Quantifying the cost savings of global solar photovoltaic supply chains. Download the recording. Abstract: Achieving carbon neutrality requires deploying renewable energy at unprecedented speed and scale, yet countries sometimes implement policies that increase costs by restricting the free flow of capital, talent and innovation in favour of localizing benefits such as economic growth, employment and trade surpluses. Here we assess the cost savings from a globalized solar photovoltaic (PV) module supply chain. We develop a two-factor learning model using historical capacity, component and input material price data of solar PV deployment in the United States, Germany and China. We estimate that the globalized PV module market has saved PV installers US$24 (19–31) billion in the United States, US$7 (5–9) billion in Germany and US$36 (26–45) billion in China from 2008 to 2020 compared with a counterfactual scenario where domestic manufacturers supply an increasing proportion of installed capacities over a ten-year period. Projecting the same scenario forwards from 2020 results in estimated solar module prices that are approximately 20–25 per cent higher in 2030 compared with a future with globalized supply chains. International climate policy benefits from a globalized low-carbon value chain, and these results point to the need for complementary policies to mitigate welfare distribution effects and potential impacts on technological crowding out.
  LI Ke. Professor, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Hunan Normal University Bio: Dr. Ke Li is a professor and a doctoral supervisor of statistics at Hunan Normal University (China), the dean of Hunan Institute for Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality (HICPCN). He has conducted some joint researches at University of Mälardalen in the Sweden and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the United States. Prof. Li is a scholar combined knowledge with action. Currently, he is also the Member of Hunan Carbon Peaking & Carbon Neutrality Expert Advisory Committee, the chief expert of Innovative Low Carbon Center in Hunan. Prof. Li is devoted to energy economics and green development in China for nearly 20 years, he has also won many awards, such as the International Clean Energy Talent Program 2017 (ICET2017), the most cited original energy article from China (2017), the TOP reviewer of energy economics in 2019, etc. In recent years, he ranks among Elsevier's highly cited scholars in China, and the top 2% scholar in the field of global environmental science. Title: Chinese Modernization: A “Dual-Carbon” Strategic Perspective. Download the recording. Abstract: Achieving carbon neutrality is an important visionary goal to promote the modernization and great rejuvenation of China. This speech is a profound interpretation of the green connotation of Chinese modernization from the perspective of "double carbon" strategy. It further reviews the arduous exploration of Chinese modernization; discusses the basic features of the modernization of harmony between human and nature; clarifies the inevitability, challenges and opportunities of the dual-carbon strategy and the realization path to achieve carbon neutrality as the rightful meaning of Chinese modernization. It reflects the vision of carbon neutrality as the goal of Chinese modernization from the following four dimensions, including the huge scale, common prosperity, coordination and coexistence, and peaceful development.
  Stefka Eriksen is Research Professor at the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU). Title: Energy in the Medieval North: Notions, Access, and Communication. Download the recording. Abstract: Norway and Iceland are rich in various forms of what we call ‘green’ energy today, such as water, thermo-energy, and wind. This has been the case historically too and, in this paper, I will explore what the oldest written sources from the area, that is medieval Old Norse texts, tell us about attitudes to energy at that time. The sources tell of various types or notions of energy, which included the energy embedded in and produced by humans, the energy within human communities, the energy inherent in nature and in ‘things’, and of course the energy of God. The main questions that will be discussed based on the literary sources are: Was energy seen as local or global? Did this change with the introduction of Christianity? How did people relate to these different notions of energy – was energy seen as an agency on its own or was it meant to be used and controlled? What gave access to energy and what was the necessary social position for such access? Ultimately, these discussions will increase our insight about the link between the agents responsible for the literary sources (i.e. the communication about energy) and the agents with greatest access to anergy in medieval Norway and Iceland.

  
  

  Anders Hougaard is Associate Professor in the Department of Language and Communication, University of Southern Denmark Title: Mythic Energy. Download the recording. Abstract: This talk discusses two major dimensions of the way in which energy is present in our world as an external, life-sustaining resource: energy framed as a utility and energy as a mythic relation. The relationship between them is asymetrical, but I would like to propose that they ought to be seen as a dynamic, dialectical complex. These days, energy as framed in a global utility context is the hottest of topics. This includes concern over lack of supply, climate change, “green transition”, technological development, economy and more. Discourse at the global level teaches us that ENERGY AS UTILITY is the decisive interface between humans, societies, energy, climate and technology. And while this perspective is unquestionably crucial, this thinking about energy tends to have an important blind angle. In the global discourse on the urgencies and crises around energy use and energy production we rarely find topicalisation of energy as the vehicle or ressource of story, myth, identity or meaning of life. Thus what is missing from the focus of the discourse that is fed by IPCC reports, news coverage, political agendas, huge industrial initiatives and protest movements is that long ago utility became myth and energy took on an “existential” role in our lives. In this talk, I will point to contemporary places where we find mythic relations with energy, analyse selected examples applying a combination of theory and insights from phenomenology/existentialist philosophy and the field cognitive multimodality, and discuss what role ENERGY AS MYTH plays and may play as we go forward.

  About Us Conference Organization Committee Directors Prof. ZENG Yanyu, Dean of the College of Foreign Studies. Mark Turner, Director of the Center for Cognitive Science. Committee members: Prof. LIU Bai, Dr. CHEN Zhongping, Dr. ZENG Jiansong, Dr. QI Xingang, Dr. QIN Yong. Hunan Normal University Located in Changsha, a city of great historical and cultural interest, Hunan Normal University (HUNNU) is an institution of higher education listed in the national “211 Project” and the “Double Top-Class Project” constructed jointly by the Ministry of Education and Hunan Province. Founded in 1938 as National Normal College (NNC), it is one of the oldest normal universities in China. In the wave of university reforms in 1953, Hunan Normal College (HNC) was founded on the basis of NNC. In 1984, HNC was renamed HUNNU. Gloriously, it was admitted in 1996 into the “211 Project”—one of the “100 key universities to be promoted in the 21st century” by Chinese Ministry of Education. Since 2000, it has renewed itself by merging with Hunan Teachers’ College, Hunan College of Politics and Law and Hunan Medical College in succession. HUNNU consists of 24 colleges and runs altogether 92 undergraduate disciplines, which fall into such 11 main categories as philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, technology, agriculture, medicine, management and art. It boasts such 6 National Key Disciplines as Ethics, English Language and Literature, Modern Chinese History, Developmental Biology, Theoretical Physics, Basic Mathematics, and 9 Key Disciplines sponsored by the 211 Project, and 22 provincial-level key disciplines rated in the 12th Five-Year Plan. HUNNU has set up partnerships with 171 universities and institutions in 41 countries and regions to push forward personnel exchange and cooperation in teaching and scientific research. It has co-established Confucius Institutes at Kazan Federal University in Russia, Wonkwang University in South Korea and Southern Utah University in the U.S. Over the 80 years, HUNNU has been developing steadily despite the warfare of WWII. The faculty, whichever generation they were, stuck to the motto “Be humane, benevolent, excellent and diligent”, and worked hard jointly for the prosperity today. In recent years, propelled by the “211 Project” and the “Double Top-Class Project”, HUNNU has achieved much in discipline development, student education, faculty construction, teaching research and social service in the satisfaction of more than Hunan’s needs in educational, economic and social development. While going forward, HUNNU takes holistic education as the fundamental mission, and strives to be a key comprehensive university which, with great advantages in teacher training, is top-class in China and well known abroad. College of Foreign Studies, 410081 36 Lushan Rd., Yuelu District, Changsha, China Foreign Studies College of Hunan Normal University dates back to Dept. of Foreign Studies of National Normal College founded in 1938. The first dean was QIAN Zhongshu (1910-1998), a famous scholar of Western and Chinese culture. After him, LUO Kailan (1906-1988), LIU Zhongde (1914-2008) and other eminent scholars worked here in succession. Now it holds the first-level doctoral program of Foreign Language and Literature and a research station for post-doctors. Under the leadership of Prof. JIANG Hongxin, its discipline of English Language and Literature was evaluated as a national key discipline. In Sept. 2017, its discipline of Foreign Languages and Literatures was admitted into the national “World First-Class Discipline Construction Project”, being one of the 6 admitted disciplines of its type in China. It consists of Dept. of English, Dept. of Translation Studies, Dept. of Russian, Dept. of Japanese, Dept. of Korean, Dept. of French and Dept. of Public English, and boasts such institutes as Hunan Center for International Cultural Communication, Hunan Center for Sino-Russian Cultural Exchanges, Center of American Studies, Center of Northeast Asian Studies, Center for Studies of British and Irish Literature, Center of Modern Foreign Language Teaching, Center of Cognitive Linguistic Studies, Center for Studies of British and American Poetry. It publishes Journal of Foreign Languages and Cultures and a Chinese journal of the same name, and supports 3 Confucius Institutes abroad. It has a faculty of 26 full professors, 44 assistant professors and dozens of lecturers, of whom 51 have got doctoral degrees, 2 are members of the Discipline Assessment Group under the State Council, 2 are state-level teaching masters, and 2 are awardees of the New Century Talent Program of Chinese Ministry of Education. It is a partner of over 30 universities in America, Britain, Japan, Russia and South Korea. Now it has over 40 doctoral candidates, over 600 graduate students, and over 1,200 full-time undergraduates. Adhering to the motto “international perspective, global sense, honesty, integrity and versatility”, Foreign Studies College aims to cultivate more versatile and innovative talents who are both physically and mentally healthy, both virtuous and learned and are adaptable to societal changes. Red Hen Lab™ The International Distributed Little Red Hen Lab™ is a global big data science laboratory and cooperative for research into multimodal communication. Red Hen deploys the contributions of researchers from complementary fields, from AI and statistics to linguistics and political communication, to create rich datasets of parsed and intelligible multimodal communication and to develop tools to process these data and any other data susceptible to such analysis. Red Hen’s social organization and computational tools are designed for reliable and cumulative progress in a dynamic and extremely challenging field: the systematic understanding of the full complexity of human multimodal communication. The study of how human beings make meaning and interpret forms depends upon such collaboration.