Presentation
The IASS-AIS Collegium was established at the 13th World Congress of Semiotics in Kaunas, 26-30 June, 2017. It consists of twelve semioticians, recognized scholars in their fields, chosen to be as representative as possible of the different trends and schools of international semiotics.
The purpose of the Collegium is to serve as a body of scholarly reference and certification. In many countries, semiotics is still not firmly established academically, and young scholars and faculty may have difficulty finding senior semioticians who can vouch for the legitimacy and quality of their work, whether they are applying for a scholarship or grant or being considered for a faculty position or promotion.
It is the hope of the IASS-AIS Board that the Collegium, given the acknowledged academic standing of its members, could act as a body of reference in such cases.
Interested scholars, members of the IASS-AIS, could apply for a letter of support from the Collegium, explaining the nature of their request or project. The Collegium would consult, especially with those of its members who are best qualified to judge the specific case, and if they feel it is warranted, would issue a letter of support for the project in question.
The Collegium is intended to serve purely as a consulting body and only upon request. In the future, it could also assist young scholars with applications, serve as an advisory body for new postgraduate programmes, recommend semioticians to serve as jury members for academic appointments, promotions and evaluations, act to establish semiotics more firmly in international scientific classifications, and engage in other activities as the IASS-AIS Board sees fit.
It is anticipated that the Collegium will be able to respond to requests in any of the official languages of the IASS-AIS (English, French, Spanish and German).
Applications for Collegium endorsements of grant proposals, job applications, promotions and other scholarly projects in semiotics should be made by email to Karin Boklund-Lagopolou boklund@enl.auth.gr).