Confirmed speakers

Lisa El Refaie – Cardiff University

Elisabeth (Lisa) El Refaie is a Reader at Cardiff University, UK. She has published widely on the embodied nature of metaphor, including in her recent monograph, Visual Metaphor and Embodiment in Graphic Illness Narratives (2019). She has developed a drawing workshop method that enables people with ‘invisible’ health conditions to share their experiences by creating their own metaphors (drawingout.uk).

Francesca Panzeri – Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca

Francesca Panzeri is an Associate Professor in Philosophy and Theories of Language at the Department of Psychology, University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy. Her research focuses on pragmatic phenomena, such as the derivation of implicitly conveyed content and figurative meaning (metaphors and irony). She has conducted several experimental studies on the acquisition of pragmatic competence, in typical (neurotypically developing children) and atypical populations (children with prelinguistic deafness with cochlear implant, with hearing aids, or using Italian Sign Language; children with Autism; adolescents with Down Syndrome).