With the rapid development of science and technology, language is endowed with new potential in the process of knowledge construction and meaning-making. Meanwhile, the concept of new liberal arts emphasizes interdisciplinary integration and innovation, injecting fresh vitality into linguistic disciplines. Under such circumstances, our 2024 Doctoral Forum, focused on exploring the boundaries of foreign language studies, aims to discuss how technological advancements propel the exploration of new horizons in language research and foster innovation and development.
“Empowerment of Language” highlights the new functions and values that language gains as a result of technological progress. The rapid development of technologies like artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing has improved the efficiency and accuracy of language processing, and enriched the scenarios and ways of language application, greatly influencing the research contents, methods and paradigms of language and related disciplines. In this context, literature, linguistics, and translation studies break the disciplinary boundaries by integrating multidisciplinary knowledge, and constantly expand outward to promote each other’s development, contributing to the development of new liberal arts.
“New Horizons of the Humanities” refers to the new perspectives, new methods and new fields emerging in humanities research influenced by the development of science and technology as well as new liberal arts. For instance, advancement of big data analysis and language models have provided us with more effective analytical tools for better understanding and uncovering language patterns, bringing more possibilities and innovations for linguistics, literature, and translation research. In the new era, we should actively promote interdisciplinary and technological integration, so that language can better meet the needs of serving the development of human society.