Seminar on Multimodal Analysis: Theory and Practice

Prof Kay O’Halloran (Department of Communication and Media, University of Liverpool, UK), one of the world’s leading experts in multimodal analysis, will lead a two-day seminar on August 7–8, 2025 at the Department of Semiotics. The seminar is open to all interested participants, and no prior knowledge of semiotics is required.

Multimodal Analysis - Theory and Practice

Schedule: The workshop runs from 10.00 to 16.00 on both days, with a lunch break from 12 to 13.

Thursday, 7 Aug: Introduction to Multimodal Analysis
Jakobi 2 - 306, Tartu

The workshop will provide an overview of multimodal analysis, including key theoretical and analytical concepts. The focus is how meaning arises from the integration of language with different semiotic choices in multimodal texts and how these meanings are resemiotised and recontextualized over time. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to apply the theoretical tools for close analysis of multimodal texts.

Friday, 8 Aug: Multimodal Analysis in the Digital Age
Jakobi 2 - 306, Tartu

The second workshop is concerned with the challenges arising in the digital age, specifically in relation to big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI tools. The ways to address these challenges from a multimodal perspective will be investigated. As part of this discussion, participants will have the opportunity of exploring multimodal analysis platforms for big data analytics of online and social media developed at the University of Liverpool.

NB! Please bring your laptop in order to access and explore the analysis platforms.

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Professor Kay O’Halloran is Chair Professor and Head of Department of Communication and Media in the School of the Arts at the University of Liverpool. She is also Co-Director of the Digital Media and Society Institute (DMSI). Kay is an internationally recognized leading academic in the field of multimodal analysis, involving the study of the interaction of language with other resources in texts, interactions and events (e.g. text, images, video, websites). Her early work involved multimodal approaches to mathematics, including the study of the historical evolution of mathematics discourse, the semantic expansions of meaning arising from the interaction of language, images and mathematical symbolism in mathematical texts, and multimodal literacy. Following this work, she has focused on the development of new digital tools and techniques for multimodal analysis and mixed methods approaches for analysis of large multimodal data sets.

The workshop is free of charge, with everyone being responsible for their own lunch (there are many cafes with lunch offers close to the university buildings).