Profanity : redefining the limits. The F-word across linguistics, translation and the arts (Arras)
The 2025 international conference on the f-word (24-26 September 2025) aims at exploring the manifold nature and uses of ‘fuck’—‘the most important and powerful word in the English language’ (Sheidlower 2009)—from the viewpoints of linguistics, translation studies and culture.
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
Wednesday 24
9.00: Welcome
9.30: Opening Remarks by Anne Besson, Head of ‘Textes & Cultures’
9.45: Keynote Address
Jesse Sheidlower, writer and lexicographer, Columbia University
“Access Denied: Exclusion Policy in The F-Word”
11.00: Break
11.15: Panel 1 – The F-Word across Contexts and Collective Representations
Chair: TBA
Adam Wilson, Université de Lorraine, « Start (Fucking?) Up: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Uses (and Abuses) of Profanity in ‘New’ Professional Contexts »
Virginia Calabria, Durham University, Eleonora Sciubba, Tilburg University & Ilaria Fiorentini, Università di Pavia, “Fucking-Swearing to Achieve ‘Playfulness’ in WhatsApp Conversations of Italian Gamers”
Marianne Rathje, Danish Language Council, « ‘Fuck’ in Danish Youth Language: Pragmatics, Gender and Globalization »
Q&A
12.45: Lunch
2.30: Panel 2 - The Linguistics of Fuck
Chair: TBA
Julie Neveux, Sorbonne University, “‘If It’s Not Asking Too Fucking Much!’: The Expressivity of Inserted Fuck Forms in Arthur Nersesian’s The Fuck-Up, an Enactive Linguistic Approach”
Sarah Melker, University of Graz, “Are Delocutives Unfuckable? Examining a Gap in Productivity”
Camille Ternisien, Université de Lorraine, “‘We Have Reached Peak Lack of Fucks Given’: Profanity in Light Verb Constructions”
Laura Goudet, University of Rouen Normandy & IUF, “Performing Emphases on Fuck in Contemporary Music”
Q&A
4.30: Cocktail
Thursday 25
9.00: Welcome
9.15: Keynote Address
Tony McEnery, University of Lancaster
“The F-Word in Conversational British and American English”
10.30: Break
10.45: Panel 3 – Exploring the Cultural Expressivity of the F-Word
Chair: TBA
Silvia Neri, Paris 8 University, “The Imagistic Aesthetic of the Word Fuck”
Amy Wells, University of Caen Normandy, “Stitching F-Bombs: Artistic and Political Expressions In American Culture, 2005- 2025”
Minna Hjort, University of Turku, “Effings on the Wall. Fuck in the Linguistic Landscape”
Benjamin Campion, University of Lille, “The F-Word and Censorship: History of a Tumultuous Televisual Relationship in the United States”
Q&A
12.45: Lunch
2.30: Panel 4 – The F-Word in Conversation: The Case of Audiovisual Translation
Chair: TBA
Catarina Xavier, University of Lisbon, “‘Please Avoid The F-Word’. A Survey-Based Analysis of Translator’ Beliefs, Attitudes and Guidelines Regarding Taboo Language in Subtitling”
Frédérique Brisset, University of Lille, “Deconstructing Fucking Harry’s Dubbed Version: A Case Study”
Éponine Moreau, University of Mons, “What the Fuck Didn’t You Translate? The Subtitling Strategies and Techniques Used to Render The F-Word and Its Variants in Netflix Original Series”
Julie Loison-Charles, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, “The F-Word in Audiovisual Translation: A Case Study on Ted Lasso”
Q&A
* * *
7.00: Conference Dinner – “La Cave Des Saveurs” (Arras)
Friday 26
9.00: Welcome
9.15: Keynote Address
Jonathon Green, writer and lexicographer
“The Words That Came In from the Cold”
10.30: Break
10.45: Panel 5 – The Written (F-)Word: Translation Strategies in Practice
Chair: TBA
Claire Placial, Université de Lorraine & Myriam Houssay-Holzschuch, Université Grenoble Alpes, “Translating Simon Springer’s ‘Fuck Neoliberalism’: A Defense and Illustration”
Charles Bonnot, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, “A Walk Among the Fucks: A Reflexive Approach to Translating The F-Word”
Corinne Wecksteen-Quinio, Artois University, “Fuck-In(’) Translation, If You Pardon My French. A Study of the Multifaceted Aspects of The F-Word In 20th-21st Century English and American Novels and Their Translations into French”
Juliette Pézaire, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, « Translating Fuck in Contemporary Scottish Vernacular Novels: From Accidental Resemantization to Damaging Cultural Representations »
Q&A
12.45: Lunch
* * *
2.30: Conference Closure: - Guided Tour of the City Squares
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Julie Assouly (Université d’Artois)
Laura Goudet (Université de Rouen & IUF)
Jonathon Green
Julie Loison-Charles (Université de Lille)
Tony McEnery (Lancaster University)
Florent Moncomble (Université d’Artois)
Sandrine Oriez (Université Rennes II)
Sandrine Sorlin (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 & IUF)
Sigolène Vivier (Université d’Artois)
Guillaume Winter (Université d’Artois)
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Florent Moncomble, Sigolène Vivier, Guillaume Winter (Université d’Artois, UR 4028 Textes & Cultures)
The organising committee can be contacted by email at wtf@sciencesconf.org