After four consecutive editions of “Spanning Regions and Disciplines,” the Institute of English Studies of the University of Pécs hosted the fifth student and alumni conference of the European Joint Master’s Programme in English and American Studies on 8 May 2025. 

The conference was held in continuation of the transdisciplinary Online Lecture Series of the Joint Programme “Environment(s): Literary, Cultural and Linguistic Perspectives”. Students and recent graduates of the Joint Programme were invited to contribute to the conference with either a paper or a poster presentation on the topic of “Environment(s)” with a literary, cultural, linguistic or transdisciplinary focus. 

The deliberately open and multidimensional concept of “Environment(s)” invited discussions that engage with the natural, social, cultural, and disciplinary landscapes that characterise our lives. The consortium sought contributions that addressed environmental challenges in the natural world, such as climate change, sustainability and ecological crisis, as well as the social and cultural environments that influence human relationships, identities and practices. Students and alumni were also invited to reflect on the environments of academia itself—interdisciplinary methodologies, intellectual ecosystems and the evolving spaces of knowledge production.

The aim of the conference was to create a dynamic platform for perspectives from the social sciences, economics and other disciplines to converge with literary, cultural and linguistic studies.

About 60 to 80 students participated in the online lecture series, which consisted of four online lectures given by renowned academics from the partner universities and culminated in this student conference.