John Bateman (University of Bremen) is a Research Professor in Applied Linguistics and Multimodality at the Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies at Bremen University. He received his PhD in Artificial Intelligence from Edinburgh University in 1986. His research areas revolve around multimodal and multilingual semiotic descriptions, functional and computational linguistics, accounts of register, genre, functional variation, natural language semantics, and formal and linguistic ontologies. He has published widely in all of these areas, including monographs on text generation (1991, Pinter, co-authored with Christian Matthiessen), multimodality and genre (2008, Palgrave), film (2012, Routledge, with Karl-Heinrich Schmidt), text and image (2014, Routledge), and an introduction to multimodality as a new discipline (2017, de Gruyter, with Janina Wildfeuer and Tuomo Hiippala). Recent work focuses specifically on the semiotic foundations of multimodality and the use of empirical methods for their investigation, combining interdisciplinary studies drawing on eye-tracking, brain-imaging and corpus studies.
Lynne Bowker (Université Laval) holds an MA in Translation (University of Ottawa, Canada) and a PhD in Language Engineering (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK). She is Full Professor and Canada Research Chair in Translation, Technologies and Society in the Department of Languages, Linguistics and Translation at Université Laval. She is also a certified French-English translator (Association for Translators and Interpreters of Ontario and Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes du Québec), and in 2020, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in recognition of her research on translation technologies. She has published widely on this topic, including Machine Translation and Global Research (2019, Emerald) and De-mystifying Translation (open access, 2023, Routledge). She is also the editor-in-chief of the journal Digital Translation (John Benjamins). Currently, she is directing the Machine Translation Literacy Project, funded by the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Astrid Ensslin (University of Regensburg) is Professor for the Dynamics of Virtual Communication Spaces and Director of DAS|LAB (Digital Area Studies Lab) at the University of Regensburg, Germany. Her research areas include Digital Cultures, Games and Electronic Literatures, with a specific focus on discourse, narrative, gender and the body. Some of her key publications include include Reading Digital Fiction: Narrative, Cognition, Mediality (Routledge, 2024, with Alice Bell), The Routledge Companion to Literary Media (2023, co-edited with Bronwen Thomas and Julia Round), Pre-web Digital Publishing and the Lore of Electronic Literature (CUP, 2022), Digital Fiction and the Unnatural (Ohio State UP, 2021, with Alice Bell), Approaches to Videogame Discourse (Bloomsbury, 2019, co-edited with Isabel Balteiro), and The Language of Gaming (Palgrave, 2011). She is a Director of the Electronic Literature Organization and Principal Investigator of the AHRC/DFG-funded “Project StoryMachine: Exploring Implications of Recommender-based Spatial Hypertext Systems for Folklore and the Humanities“ (2025-2028).
Christoph Hafner (City University of Hong Kong) is a Professor in the Department of English, at City University of Hong Kong. He is the President of the Asia-Pacific LSP and Professional Communication Association and a past President of the Hong Kong Association for Applied Linguistics. He has published widely in the areas of English for specific purposes, digital literacies, and language learning and technology. His books include: The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes (2nd edition) (Wiley, forthcoming, co-edited with Sue Starfield), Understanding Digital Literacies: A Practical Introduction (2nd edition) (Routledge, 2021, co-authored with Rodney Jones); and English in the Disciplines: A multidimensional model for ESP course design (Routledge, 2019, co-authored with Lindsay Miller). He co-edits two book series: Routledge Research in English for Specific Purposes and Routledge Introductions to English for Specific Purposes (both with Sue Starfield).
Michaela Mahlberg (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg) is a Professor of Digital Humanities and Alexander-von-Humboldt Professor at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. In 2004, she obtained a PhD from Saarland University (Germany). Before April 2024, she was a Professor of Corpus Linguistics at the University of Birmingham, where she remains an Honorary Professor. Previously, she held a chair at the University of Nottingham and held positions at the University of Liverpool, Liverpool Hope University College and the University of Bari in Italy. She is the editor of the International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, the Vice President of the Dickens Society, and the host of the Life and Language podcast.
Marcus Müller (Technische Universität Darmstadt) is Professor of German Studies – Digital Linguistics at the Department of Linguistics and Literature, Technische Universität Darmstadt. His research interests include corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, and language and art. Marcus Müller leads the Discourse Lab, a research platform for digital discourse analysis. Current work focuses on empirical terminology research, public risk discourses in Germany and the UK, and heuristic practices in academic discourse.
Wu Ping (Beijing Language and Culture University) is a Full Professor of Linguistics at Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU), where he heads the Program in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. Focusing on intercultural communication, particularly on how contemporary Chinese literature is translated into and received by other cultures, his research is based on the analysis of historical and social contexts, as well as multi-modal and para-text information. He currently works on the theory of intercultural metaphor and its application.
Josef Schmied (TU Chemnitz) is Emeritus Professor of English Language & Linguistics, concentrating on his research projects and international teaching on Academic Writing & Publishing and Digital Innovation in Language Teaching. He taught at Chemnitz University of Technology from 1993-2021, developed the International Corpus of English, East Africa and published English in Africa ( Longman 1991). He likes to work in international projects, in Summer Schools and as Guest Professor, e.g. in Guangzhou/China in 2015 and 2024 and in Modena/Italy in 2019 and 2022. Current projects focus on constructing an agent that speaks non-standard Englishes (CRC 1410 Hybrid Societies) and digital methodologies using AI tools.