We are excited to be holding our first online conference, from Tuesday 12 to Thursday 14 October 2021. This conference is on the topic ‘Narrating the Lived Experiences of a Global Pandemic’.

The conference will present international, multidisciplinary, and inclusive perspectives of the narratives which have shaped the political, business, social, scientific, and health responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. This includes live talks and Q&As, ePosters and written narratives for you to browse throughout the conference. The submissions celebrate both academic and personal contributions across all departments at the University of Essex Online.

We are also pleased to welcome Professor Veronika Koller, Professor of Discourse Studies at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, as our keynote speaker. Her talk, ‘We are at war – or are we? Politicians’ use of metaphor for Covid-19’, draws from the crowd-sourced #ReframeCovid collection, and will discuss how the prominent war metaphor within pandemic discourse has recast the relationship between governments and citizens.

“The idea of conducting an online conference was originally formed by a group of our tutors who were informally exploring the potential for undertaking an interdisciplinary research collaboration during the extended lockdowns in mid-2020. Our collective experience of the COVID-19 pandemic seemed an obvious choice for a topic that would be universally relevant to all given the international profile of our students and academic staff. Given the university teaches through an online forum it seemed like a great idea to launch an online conference, providing both students and tutors across the university the opportunity to get actively involved.”

Meigan Oxley, Conference Committee

The conference is open to all current students, and can be accessed through the virtual learning environment. There, you can view the full conference programme, access the live presentations, browse the asynchronous content and participate in discussion around the conference. You can also join the conversation on Twitter, using the hashtag #UoEOConference2021.