The IGS is an affiliate of the National Communication Association, and as such will sponsor programming at the NCA's annual meeting in New Orleans on November 19th to 22nd, 2026. The NCA's online portal for submissions is not open yet, but will be available on their website in the near future. In the meantime, we have provided below the text of our call for papers.

The purpose of the Institute of General Semantics is to promote research and teaching based on the discipline of general semantics and related approaches to understanding the human condition. Members are concerned with language, symbols, and perception; applied epistemology; scientific method writ large; behavior and cognition; order, relation, structure, and the systems view; meaning-making; critical thinking and evaluation of information; human potential; time-binding; media ecology; etc. 

The IGS seeks submissions that address any aspect of the discipline of general semantics, including applications to interpersonal, organizational, and sociocultural matters, investigations of major general semantics scholars and authors, work that advances general semantics as a field of study and/or relates general semantics to other theories, philosophical traditions, or areas of interest, etc.

The IGS will accept the following submission types: Individual Papers, Paper Sessions, Individual Films, Individual Performances, Film Sessions, Performance Sessions and Panel Discussions. All submissions must be made via NCA Convention Central. Emailed submissions will not be accepted. 

Individual Papers

Submissions must include a max 30-page, double-spaced uploaded copy of the paper. Copies must be uploaded into NCA Convention Central and must not include identifying information. Instructions on how to prepare an unidentifiable copy are provided in the Convention Library. Submitters should NOT upload a separate cover page, or any file with identifying information in the document text or properties. We will recognize the Top Paper in our division. Submissions should include title, paper description (abstract), keywords, and author information in the appropriate sections of the electronic submission form. AV requests must be made at the time of submission. If a student submission select student in the electronic form. All authors must be students, in this case. Submitters interested in being considered for Scholar to Scholar session (poster session) should indicate their interest in the electronic submission form.

Paper Sessions

Submissions must include a title and overall session description. Submission must include the title, description (abstract) and author(s) of each paper. A session chair is required, respondent is optional. Please provide a rationale for acceptance outlining the importance of the submission. AV requests must be made at the time of submission.

Panel Discussions

Submissions must include a title and session description. Submissions must include the list of each presenter involved. A session chair is required. Please provide a rationale for acceptance outlining the importance of the submission. AV requests must be made at the time of submission. No papers are presented as part of a panel discussion.

Individual Film

Submissions must include a film title, description, keywords, and film maker information. AV requests must be made at the time of submission. As a supporting file, upload a copy of the script (no more than 100 pages) or a word document that contains a link to the film or film trailer. Do not upload a video file to NCA Convention Central. In the uploaded supporting file indicate the length of the film. Individual films should be no more than 20 minutes in length. If the film is longer than 20 minutes, consider developing a Film Session submission (see requirements in this call).

Individual Performance

Submissions must include a title, description, keywords and performers’ information. Performances must be no longer than 20 minutes in length. AV requests must be made at the time of submission. As a supporting file, include a script, link to a video of the performance, or an outline of the performance.

Performance Session

Submissions must include a session title and description. Submissions must include individual performance titles, description, and performers. A chair is required. Please provide a session rationale for acceptance outlining the importance of the submission. In the supporting file please indicate the length of the performance(s) within this submission. 

Film Session

Submissions must include a session title and description, titles of each film, descriptions of each film and film maker(s) information. A session chair is required. AV requests must be made at the time of submission. Do not upload film(s) to Convention Central. Rather, upload a word document that contains a link to the film(s), film trailer(s), or script(s). In the supporting file please indicate the length of the film(s) within this submission.

Reminder About Professional Standards

All submitters are encouraged to review the Professional Standards for Convention Participants prior to submission. Helpful resources, including live and recorded step-by-step instructions on how to submit, are available in the Convention Resource Library.

Questions

For any questions regarding the IGS Affiliate programming, please contact:

Lance Strate
IGS President and Affiliate Program Planner
strate at fordham.edu

Discourse, Dialogue, and Democracy

A Symposium Sponsored by the Institute of General Semantics
Co-Sponsored by the
New York Society for General Semantics
Media Ecology Association
International Bateson Institute
Tomkins Institute
404 Festival of Art and Technology
October 3-5, 2025
The Players, 16 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY 10003

We welcome papers and proposals that fit the symposium theme or that otherwise relate to the topics of general semantics, linguistics and semiotics, media ecology, communication and culture, science and the empirical method, epistemology and phenomenology, cybernetics and systems theory, technology and society, art and perception, cognition and consciousness, evolution and emergence, health and human potential, etc.

Featuring the 73rd Annual Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture
To Be Delivered By
Tristan Harris

Tristan Harris is Co-Founder of the Center for Humane Technology (CHT), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to align technology with humanity’s best interests. He regularly briefs heads of state, technology CEOs, and US Congress members, in addition to mobilizing millions of people around the world through mainstream media. Tristan has explored the influences that hijack human attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs, from his childhood as a magician to his coursework in Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab to his leadership as a Design Ethicist at Google. Today, he studies how major technology platforms wield dangerous power over our ability to make sense of the world and leads the call for systemic change. In 2020, Tristan was featured in the two-time Emmy-winning Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma. The film unveiled how social media is dangerously reprogramming our brains and human civilization. It reached over 100 million people in 190 countries across 30 languages. His viral presentation, The AI Dilemma, with Aza Raskin, maps where we’re heading with AI and how we can respond. As a co-host of the top-rated technology podcast, Your Undivided Attention, he explores the drivers behind social media’s race for attention, its destabilization of society, and potential solutions.

Send papers, proposals, & inquiries by August 28th to

Lance Strate via President at GeneralSemantics.org

As an affiliate of the National Communication Association, the IGS sponsors program sessions at the NCA's annual meeting, which will take place on November 20th to 23rd of this year in Denver, Colorado.

We are interested in submissions that address any aspect of the discipline of general semantics, including applications to interpersonal, organizational, and sociocultural matters, investigations of major general semantics scholars and authors, work that advances general semantics as a field of study and/or relates general semantics to other theories, philosophical traditions, or areas of interest, etc. 

The IGS will accept the following submission types: Individual Papers, Paper Sessions, Individual Films, Individual Performances, Film Sessions, Performance Sessions and Panel Discussions. All submissions must be made via NCA Convention Central. Emailed submissions will not be accepted.

For more information, see our full call on the NCA website (scroll down for NCA Affiliates). Deadline for submissions is March 31st. 

For any questions regarding the IGS Affiliate programming, please contact Lance Strate, IGS President and Affiliate Program Planner.

The Institute of General Semantics invites  submissions for its Communication, Consciousness, & Culture Symposium 2, to be held online via Zoom on Saturday, April 19th.

Last year’s online symposium sponsored by the IGS, Non-Aristotelian Perspectives, Ecological Approaches, and the Anthropocene 2, featured 24 presentations from Australia, Asia, Europe, and South and North America. This year we again continue the theme from this past October’s in-person symposium accompanying our annual Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture in New York City.

We welcome presentations on topics related to general semantics, including language and symbolic communication, meaning and perception, epistemology and evaluation, etc.; on topics related to media ecology, including representation and reality, technology and environments, art and awareness, etc.; and topics related to cybernetics and systems theory, etc.

Please send all submissions and queries to IGS President Lance Strate at president@generalsemantics.org by March 21st, 2025.

Call for Papers

Modeling Our Ways of Knowing:

Examining and Evaluating the Structural Differential

Lance Strate and Bini B.S., Editors

The year 2025 represents the 100th anniversary of Alfred Korzybski’s patenting of the structural differential model as a teaching tool for the non-aristotelian discipline of general semantics. Discussed in detail in his magnum opus, Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, originally published in 1933 and now in its sixth edition, the structural differential (also known as the anthropometer) was produced as both a three-dimensional model with discs and wires and as a two-dimensional diagram. In commemoration of the centenary of the model’s introduction, we are calling for submissions that examine Korzybski’s key innovation from diverse approaches and modes of analysis.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to): the disciplinary and methodological underpinnings of the structural differential, i.e., in linguistics, mathematics, science, philosophy, politics, economics, psychology, etc.; visual and verbal antecedents of the model; the model’s innovative visual design and tactile qualities; Korzybski’s process of invention, introduction, and presentation of the model; different variations of the model produced by Korzybski and others, and alternative models such as S.I. Hayakawa’s abstraction ladder; the range of meanings and interpretations of the structural differential; the structural differential and human engineering, time-binding, consciousness of abstracting, etc.; the model’s interconnections and interdependence with other tools/ methods of Korzybski; the lives and afterlives of the structural differential through multiple interpreters/ practitioners of general semantics; the model in relation to relativity and quantum physics, neurobiology, behavioral psychology, etc.; the model’s relevance for and contributions to areas of study such as communication, literary studies, systems theory, media ecology, etc.; the model and the arts, cinema, literature, media, etc.; the structural differential and democratic consciousness; the structural differential and sanity; critical assessments of the model’s usefulness as a pedagogical tool; the timeliness and the enduring relevance of the structural differential.

Research papers should follow the APA 7th edition. We are open to length and format, from full-length essays and articles to short probes and think pieces (and possibly poetic work and images). What matters most is the quality of the submission and the intellectual and/or creative contribution that it makes. Send submissions by April 1st for full consideration (inquiries and proposals are welcome at any time) to president at generalsemantics.org.