University of Nicosia Hosts NEOLAiA Conference on Plurilingual Futures and a Decentred Europe

On 24-25 September 2026, the Department of Languages and Literature at the University of Nicosia hosted the second NEOLAiA International Conference of the working group “Narrating (Hi)Stories in Decentring Europe” on the topic “Plurilingual Futures: Voices, Practices, and Reimagining Europe”.  Eighteen presenters from Spain, France, Germany, Romania, and Cyprus participated in the event bringing together scholars across disciplines to explore how plurilingual practices, voices, and modes of mediation shape new ways in the production of meaning, authority, and knowledge today.

The interdisciplinary conference aimed at reinterpreting the concept of Europe through transcultural, counter-hegemonic, and counter-factual perspectives across languages, media, and disciplines. The participants presented empirically grounded, theoretically informed, and practice-based contributions which explored how plurilingualism is lived, negotiated, and mobilised in social, cultural, educational, historical, and narrative contexts across Europe and beyond. The presentations examined storytelling, translation, education, memory, and meaning making across languages and media, with particular attention to perspectives that challenge dominant narratives and foreground alternative or marginalised voices.