Gunther Kress, one of the key figures in the forging of social semiotics, as well being one of the definers of multimodality studies, has died. Born in 1940 in Germany, Kress’ family moved to Australia where, on leaving school, he pursued a career as a furrier. Later, he moved to the UK where he became…
Elisabeth Walther-Bense – Obituary Professor Dr. Elisabeth Walther-Bense was born in Oberweißbach, Thuringia, Germany, on August 10, 1922. She studied philosophy, German and French philology, mathematics and physics at the Universities of Jena and Mainz, and at the College of Technology, Stuttgart, later to become the University of Stuttgart. There, she was awarded her Ph.D….
Vyacheslav Ivanov, a founding member of the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics departed The Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics, born in the early 1960s as a joint initiative of intellectuals from Tartu and Moscow, was led by Juri Lotman on the Tartu side and Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov (21 August 1919 – 7 October 2017) on the Moscow…
Jerzy Pelc (1924-2017) It is with great sadness that we announce that Jerzy Pelc, University of Warsaw, a honorary president of Institut International de Philosophie and International Association for Semiotic Studies passed away on the 2nd of June 2017. Graduated from the University of Warsaw, he was a student of such philosophers and logicians as…
Obituary for Antonino Buttita Following the death of Antonino Buttita, we would like to offer you the opportunity to pay your tributes to this leading Italian semiotician. Please add your personal comments below this obituary by Gianfranco Marrone. After D’arco Silvio Avalle, Maria Corti, Pino Paioni, Cesare Segre, Umberto Eco, Tullio De Mauro, Gianfranco Bettetini,…
A leading figure with one of the greatest minds in contemporary semiotics, John Deely sadly passed away on 6 January 2017. Because he was a friend to so many and an inspiration to even more people who did not know him, we would like to offer you the opportunity to pay your tributes to this…
With regret and sorrow we must announce that on 5 August Prof. Bogdan Bogdanov passed away at the age of 75. Professor Bogdanov, classical philologist of world renown, was the founder and president of New Bulgarian University, member of the IASS executive committee since 1994, president of the Balkan Association for semiotic studies (1994-1998), the…
A true polymath and a fitting representative of semiotics’ inherent interdisciplinarity for so many years – Solomon Marcus seemed to be a ubiquitous presence in semiotics. A prominent Romanian mathematician, he coupled rigour and logic with a comprehensive vision that is the privileged possession of only the most far-seeing historians of ideas. Here, we would…
Novelist, philosopher, historian, public intellectual – underpinning all of these, Umberto Eco was a semiotician, our spiritus rector.. In the coming days and weeks, the news agencies and wider media will track Eco’s achievements, paying tribute to his intellectual might and his forging of paths into hyper-reality and the limits of interpretation. Here, we would…
Prof. Ladislav Tondl (1924–2015) The distinguished philosopher, semiotician and logician Professor Ladislav Tondl has died at the age of 91. Professor Ladislav Tondl was one of the founders of Czech semiotics, communication theory, philosophy of science and the initiator of the analytical line in Czech philosophical thought. Over long periods of political persecution in the…
