2000

July 12 “Dates, data, and narratives: the meaning of hand signs in rock art research”. Third Congress of the Australian Rock Art Research Association. Alice Springs (Australia) (July 10-14).

July 24. “Unthinking laughter.” 12^th Congress of the International Society for Humor Studies. Osaka (Japan) (July 24-27).

July 27. “Taking the body politic for a ride at the circus.” Session on “Humor in India.” 12^th Congress of the International Society for Humor Research. Osaka (Japan). (July 24-27)

 July 29.  “Semiotic theories as utopias”. Keio University. Tokyo. (invited lecture).

2002

May 24 “The sociological and epistemological status of semiotics: an assessment and a program.” Fifth Annual Meeting of the Chinese National Linguistic and Semiotic Association. Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing (P.R.China) (May 24-26).

September 27. “Toward the construction of post-colonial memory: A post-colonial reading of Sertorius (1662)”. Postcolonialism Today: Theoretical Challenges and Pragmatic Issues. A Multidisciplinary Conference. University of Toronto (September 26-28).

October 4. “Semiotics as enlightenment: East and West. A critical approach”. Semiotics and the Global Meaning of East Asian Cultures. Third EASS Seminar. Wuhan (China). (October 2-6 2002)

2003

March 28. “Iconicity or iconization? Probing the dynamic interface between language and perception”. Fourth Symposium on Iconicity in Language and Literature. Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium). (27-29 March 2003).

September 12. “When is an artifact a symbol? The type/token distinction”. Ninth Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists. St Petersburg (Russia) (10-15 September 2003).

September 13. “Criteria of symbolicity: intrinsic and extrinsic formal properties of artifacts ”. Ninth Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists. St. Petersburg (Russia) (10-15 September 2003)

2004

July 6. “Formes et sens du pont dans le projet urbain”. International Association for the Semiotics of Space. Lyon (France). July 5-6, 2004).

July 9. “Static images as agencies: performative, algorithmic and normative functions” Ontogeny and Phylogeny of the Picture Sign. Eighth Congress of the International Association of Semiotic Studies. Lyon (France). (July 7-12, 2004).

2005

March 11. “Does Saussure still matter?” Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures. University of Bari (Italy)

March 12. “Gesture in perpective.” Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures. University of Bari (Italy)

March 18. “Putting grammaticalization to the iconicity test” Fifth International Symposium on Iconicity in Language and Literature. Krakow (Poland). (17-20 March 2005)

September 8. “Inferring gestures from artifacts”. Eleventh Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists. Cork (Ireland) (5-11 September 2005.

 2006

April 4. “To catch a meme: biological and psychological perspectives on memetics”. Memetics Workshop. Strategic Analysis Institute. Arlington, VA (USA). (April 4-5 2006)

September 9. “The archaeology of graphic signs: evolutionary and systemic approaches”. XVth Congress of UISPP [Union Internationale des sciences préhistoriques et protohistoriques],  Lisbon (Portugal). (September 4-10)

November 10. “The optic, haptic, and acoustic dimensions of gestures: evolutionary significance and methodological implications”. Berlin Gesture Center (Interdisziplinäres BCG-Kolloquium). Freie Universität Berlin (Germany).

December 1. “Timeless circus in times of change”. Conference on “Fabulous Risk: Danger in Performance in Circus and Sideshow”, University of Wollongong (Australia). (December 1-3)

December 5. “What and how does the circus communicate: The role of language in circus performances.” The Languages in Society Research Group, and The Centre for Canadian-Australian Studies. University of Wollongong (Australia).

2007

January 11. “Semiotics as the science of memory.” Conference on “Memory from Transdisciplinary Perspectives: Agency, Practices, and Mediations”. Research Centre for Culture and Communication, University of Tartu (Estonia). (January 11-14)

January 15. “Semiotics of the circus: from Structuralism to Evolutionism”. Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu. (January 15)

2008

“Evolutionary approaches to the archaeology of writing”. In session on “Approaches to Rock Art: Recent Research from Around the World”. 6th World Archaeology Congress, Dublin (Ireland), June 30-July 6, 2008.

“Space and time as cultural artifacts: Blackpool as heterotopy and heterochrony”. In session on “Archaeology of Leisure Resorts”. 6th World Archaeology Congress, Dublin (Ireland), June 30-July 6, 2008.

“Signs as artifacts: an examination of the Piette collection”. In session on “Prehistoric Technology: Cognition and the Art of Artifact Production”. 14th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, Malta, September 16-21, 2008.

2009

“Analogies and homologies in the semiotics of performance”. 10th Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies. La Coruña (Spain), September 22-26, 2009.

“The development of a semiotic culture at the interface of philosophy and science”. Conference on “The New Semiotics”, Copenhagen Business School, Fredericksberg (Denmark), November 25, 2009.

“Semiotics and the assumption of rationality: the evolutionary turn”. University of Lund (Sweden), November 26, 2009.

“Blueprint for a theory of gestures”. Max-Plank-Institute, Nijmegen (The Netherlands), November 27, 2009

Session on “Archaeology of semiotic behaviour”. 10th Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies. La Coruña (Spain), September 22, 2009.

“The archaeology of semiotic behavior” (September 23). 10th Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, September 22-26. La Coruna (Spain).

“Surrealist images as meta-cognitive processes”. (June 12) An International Conference on Cognitive Poetics, a Multimodal Approach. University of Toronto (June 10-12). Toronto (Canada).

2010

“Gestures for the senses: an evolutionary perspective on the multimodality of gestures“. (February 25). Gestures at Large. State University of Ohio. Columbus, Ohio (USA).

“Gestures in evolutionary perspective: from nature to culture and back” (March 13). Interdisciplinary Conference on Semiotics, March 12-13, 2010. University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan (USA).

“L’invisible et l’impensé du spectacle vivant” (April 24). Colloque : Savoirs et Performance, 23-24 avril, 2010, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels (Belgium).

“The multimodality of gestures: problems of definition, description, and interpretation.” (April 29). A seminar at the Center for Semiotics, University of Lund, Lund (Sweden).

“Le cirque a l’épreuve du texte: explorations sémiotiques.” (May 7). Colloque International : De l’observation au texte. Du texte a la culture. Deux parcours de la sémiotique ? 6-8 mai, 2010, University of Tallinn (Estonia).

“Gestures in the 4 th dimension” (July 26). 4th Conference of the International Society for Gesture Studies, July 25-30, Frankfurt am Oder (Germany).

“Comments on the semiotics of religion panel” (August 17). Meeting of the International Association for the History of Religions, August 15-21, University of Toronto (Canada).

“The grounding of archaeological imagination: from imagination to simulation.” (September 2). The 16th Annual Meeting of The European Association of Archaeologists, 1-6 September 2010, The Hague (The Netherlands).

“The legal status of animals: from perpetrators of wrongs to victims of abuses” (September 4). The 9th International Roundtable for the Semiotics of Law, 3-6 September 2010, Poznan (Poland).

2011

“Mangas unbounded: understanding the cross-cultural diffusion of complex signs” (February 12). The Local and Universal Quality of Media Arts. ICOMAG 2011, 10-12 February 2011, Tokyo (Japan).

“The epistemological sustainability of semiotics” Seminar for the Japanese Semiotic Association, 13 February 2011, Yokohama (Japan).

“Théorie des jeux, spectacle et émotion: la réinvention du cirque au Canada”. Colloque International: Spectacle Vivant et “Interdiscipline”. Académie Royale de Belgique, 28-29 avril, Bruxelles (Belgique).

“The challenge of measuring gestures: space, time, network, and context” (invited seminar). May 2. University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld (Germany).

“Between etymology and metaphor: the meaning and signification of communication and communicology” Fifth International Communicology Institute conference, July 15-22. Jelenia Gora (Poland).

“What are the pre-requisites for the emergence of writing?” Panel on “Probing pre- and proto-historic signs: toward a falsifiable hypothesis”. 17th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists. September 14-18. Oslo (Norway).

2013

“Le système pronominal française: entre logique et passion.“ Francontrate 2013: Deuxième Colloque Francophone International de l’Université de Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia (April 12).

“Playing with water and fire in circus performances: Slapstick as secular ritual.” International Symposium on Earth, Fire, Water: Matter and Meaning of Rituals, May 31 – June 1. Victoria College, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada (June 1).

2014

“ What is a gag?” 26 th Conference of the International Association for Humor Studies, July 7-11. Utrecht, The Netherlands (July 9).

“The stargazers: The evolution of knowledge, beliefs, and rock art” 17th International Union of the Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (UISPP), September 1-7. Burgos, Spain (September 2).

“Why did early humans migrate?” 17th International Union of the Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences, September 1-7. Burgos, Spain (September 4).

“De l’Auguste de l’histoire à l’auguste du cirque”. Augustus through the Ages: Receptions, readings and appropriations of the historical figure of the first Roman emperor, November 6-8. Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium (November 7).

“Fonctions sémiotiques de la musique dans les numéros de cirque” Colloque sur Musique et Cirque, November 6-8. Université Paul Valery, Montpellier, France (November 9).

2015

“Quand et pourquoi le spectateur rit-il?” Colloque international: Les métamorphoses du spectateur, March 20-22. Académie Royale de Belgique. Bruxelles, Belgium (March 21).

“The traditional circus as trade and art” Zirkus Wissenschaft: Semiotics of the Circus, International Conference, April 15-17. University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany (April 15).

“Circus and sacrifice: Spilling blood in the ring” Blood Rituals: Past and Present. One-day Workshop, May 21. History of Religions. Stockholm University. Stockholm, Sweden (May 21).

“The surrealist ‘image’: a cognitive poetics approach.” Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA) Conference 2015, July 15-18. University of Kent, Canterbury, UK (July 15).

“Semiotics and pragmatics of the French pronominal system.” 14th International Pragmatics Conference, July 26-31. Antwerp, Belgium (July 28).

2016

“Humor and the ‘theory of mind” 28th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Humor Studies (ISHS), June 27-July 1. Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland (June 28).

“Funny moves: Under what conditions can a gesture elicit laughter?” 28th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Humor Studies, June 27 – July 1. Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland (June 29).

2017

“The semiotics of hybrid space”. Congress of the International Association for the Semiotics of Space, June 24 – July 1. Kaunas, Lithuania (June 26).

“Circus and space: a sense of gravity”. UpSideDown: Circus and Space, Second International Conference on Zirkus Wissenschaft, June 28 – July 1. University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany (June 28).

“Semiotic technologies and the crafting of catchy memes”. Semiofest 2017. Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, Canada (July 19-22).

“Hominin mobility and the evolution of general cognition”. General session. 23rd  Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, August 30 – September 3. Maastricht, Belgium (September 1).

“Why archaeology should be a part of the curriculum in general education”. Session: Present identities from the past. Providing a meaning to modern communities. 23rd Annual Meeting of European Association of Archaeologists, August 30 – September 3. Maastricht, Belgium (September 2).

2019

“The history and prehistory of space: Introduction.” European Association of Archaeologists“, 25th Annual Meeting, September 4-7. Bern, Switzerland.

“Toward a representation of early humans’ experience of space” European Association of Archaeologists, 25th Annual Meeting, September 4-7. Bern, Switzerland.

”The Europe of the Gypsies”. 12th International Conference on Semiotics, Hellenic Semiotic Society: Signs of Europe, November 1-3. Thessaloniki, Greece.

2021

“The endless frontiers of semiotics” (Key note). International Congress of the German Semiotics Association: Transformations: Signs and their Objects in Transitions” (September 28 – October 3, 2021). [Zoom delivery]

“Circus in transition: evolutionary semiotics and cultural resilience” (invited paper). Really Circus: Dramaturgy on the Border between Art and Academia (Special session of the International Congress of the German Semiotics Association) (September 28, 2021). [Zoom delivery]

2022

“ The otherness of circus space: the paradox of stable circuses”. International Conference on Circus Buildings, Budapest Circus Festival, The Centre for Circus Cultures (January 11-17). Budapest, Hungary. [Zoom delivery]