The Institute of General Semantics generalsemantics.org Discourse, Dialogue, & Democracy 2 An Online Symposium April 25th, 2026 As this is a Zoom recording, quality and volume will vary depending on the individual participant's equipment and set up. Greetings and Welcomings Lance Strate, Fordham University, USA Session I New Semantic Environments Chair: Eva Berger, College of Management Academic Studies, Israel “From Screen Celebrity to Social Media Influencer: The Future of Celebrities as Social Media Influencers as AI Challenges Their Roles in Contemporary and Commercial Media Environments in 2026” Renee Peterson, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia “Movement, Vision and Feedback in AI Robotics” Chris Chesher, University of Sydney, Australia “Time-Binding Democratic Sensibilities Through Literature: Exploring the Potential of Parrhesia, Dissent/Resistance and Creatical Interventions” Bini Babu Sudha, Nirma University, India “Reading of Discourse as Semantic Reactions: A Working Paper” Pratiksha N. Chavada, Shri M. P. Shah Arts & Science College, India Session II Words in Thought & Action 10:30 AM to 11:45 AM Chair: Dom Heffer, Institute of General Semantics, United Kingdom “The Never Ending Question: Converting the Being-Question into the Event-Question” Mauro Ventola, Center for Ontological Transformation, Italy “Discourse, Dialogue, Deliberation and Defending Democracy” Olek Netzer, Independent Scholar, Israel “The Dialect as a Cognitive Map: (Re)interpreting ‘Home’ through the Lens of ‘Thinking in Language’” Oleksandr Bohomolets-Barash, National Academy of Sciences, Ukraine "Semiotic Tensions and Perspectives in Intermediality" Eleni Timplalexi, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece Session III People in Quandaries 12:00 Noon to 1:15 PM Chair: Susan Drucker, Hofstra University “AI, Deepfakes and Democracy: Symbols, Environments, Modes” Olena Marina, Munster Technological University, Ireland, and Igor Korolyov, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine “Rethinking Minority Language Acquisition in the Digital Age” Grace Foley, Trinity University, Ireland “Linking Condillac’s Abstractions to Korzybski’s Structural Differential” Robert T. Ackland, State University of New York College at Plattsburgh, USA “The Dawn of a New Order: Rebirth Through the ‘Impossible’” Pedro Gil González, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico Session IV Language in Human Affairs 1:30 PM to 2:45 PM Chair: Corey Anton, Grand Valley State University, USA “Teaching General Semantics Through Make-Believe” Martin H. Levinson, Institute of General Semantics, USA “On the Necessity of an Ethics of Speech: Cultivating Dialogue in Philosophy Classes in Times of Discursive Violence” Marcelo Capello Martins, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio, Brazil General Semantics, Rhetoric, and Education: Possibilities for a Democratic Counter-Environment Ryan P. McCullough, West Liberty University, USA “When Discourse Is Generated: Artificial Intelligence as the Silent Architect of Public Discourse” Laura Trujillo Liñán, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico Session V The Map is Not the Territory 3:00 PM to 4:15 PM Chair: Lance Strate, Fordham University, USA “Margaret Mee's Moon Flower: Map, Instant and Territory” Fabiola Ballarati Chechetto, Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil “Maps, Manifestations, and #MagicResistance: Occult Symbolism for Political Action” Christina M. Knopf, State University of New York College at Cortland, USA “Margins of Interpretation: Towards an Analogical Model of Hermeneutics” Elsa G. Sánchez Huerta Villalba, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico “Living an Environmental Catastrophe in a Supposed Democracy: Semantics, Dialectics, Soil and Water” W. Thomas Duncanson, Green Citizen Diplomacy Project, USA Session VI Mind and Nature 4:30 PM to 5:45 PM Chair: Thom Gencarelli, Manhattan University, USA “From Agency to Semantic Responsibility: General Semantics, Communication Ethics, and the Moral Imperative of Meaning in the Age of AI” Tiffany Petricini, Pennsylvania State University, Erie, USA “How Digital Maps Still Aren’t the Territory” Jaqueline McLeod Rogers, University of Winnipeg, Canada “A New Language of History” Jessie Lydia Henshaw, Independent Scholar, USA “What Only Persons Can Give: AI, Moral Hollowing, and the Recovery of Dialogue” Laura Meneses Trujillo, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico Concluding Remarks 5:45 PM to 6:00 PM Lance Strate, Fordham University, USA