Invited speakers

Kasia (Katarzyna) Jaszczolt is Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy of Language at the University of Cambridge and Professorial Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge. She holds a D.Phil. in linguistics and philosophy from University of Oxford. She is a linguist and a philosopher of language, interested in meaning in language, in the mind, and in conversation – how it is composed and conveyed. Her recent projects include the human concepts of time and the self as they are represented in different languages in cultures. She is also the author of a theory of meaning in discourse called Default Semantics. Her authored books include Semantics, Pragmatics, Philosophy: A Journey through Meaning (2023, CUP), Meaning in Linguistic Interaction (2016, OUP), Default Semantics (2005, OUP), Semantics and Pragmatics (2002, Longman). In 2012 Jaszczolt was elected Member of Academia Europaea and in 2015 Alumnus VIP, University of Łódź. She has served on various editorial boards, including Journal of Pragmatics and Intercultural Pragmatics. She is managing editor of a book series Oxford Studies of Time in Language and Thought (OUP). She gives lectures and seminars on various topics in semantics, pragmatics and philosophy and always enjoys talking to students and fellow scholars who share her enthusiasm for the study of meaning.

See also https://sites.google.com/view/k-m-jaszczolt

Photo: Kasia Jaszczolt

Aarne Ranta is Professor of Computer Science at the Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg. He got his PhD in philosophy at the University of Helsinki in 1990, after studies of mathematics, philosophy, and linguistics in Turku and Helsinki and doctoral studies in Stockholm. His long-term research interest is the computational analysis of syntax and semantics, which has resulted in e.g. the monograph Type Theoretical Grammar (1994, OUP) and the grammar formalism Grammatical Framework (continuously developed since 1998). Ranta’s latest research is within the projects Abstract Wikipedia, generating Wikipedia articles in different languages from a fact database, and Informath, translating between formal and informal mathematics. He is also participating in the Finnish project POLTE, Political Temporalities. Ranta was granted an Honorary Doctorate at the University of Tampere in 2018.

See also https://www.cse.chalmers.se/~aarne/

Photo: Pihla Kuusela

Ulla Vanhatalo is University Researcher at the University of Helsinki, where she also holds the title of docent. Vanhatalo has got her doctor’s degree in Finno-Ugrian languages at the University of Helsinki in 2005. She has built her career primarily in the areas of lexical semantics and synonymy, establishing a long and versatile research career in the field of semantics and meaning. Her main research interests include lexical semantics, Natural Semantic Metalanguage, and easy language. Vanhatalo and her colleagues have launched easy language research as a new interdisciplinary field in Finland, and she has integrated the study of semantic primes within this context. She is also known for her openness to diverse perspectives and her commitment to multidisciplinary approaches.

See also https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/fi/persons/ulla-vanhatalo

Photo: Veikko Somerpuro