I am a postdoctoral researcher and publications coordinator at c:o/re. My main research interest falls on the intersection of embodiment and mediality, which I explore from a semiotic perspective.
I hold a PhD from Roehampton University (London) in philosophy of education and had postdoctoral grants at Kaunas University of Technology and the University of Tartu, besides other academic positions. Having pursued a semiotic approach to education, I became interested in multimodality, literacy, digitalization and multiculturalism, as topics of contemporary salience.
At the moment, I am pursuing research on the social and cultural consequences of digitalization. Specifically, I am interested in understanding how digitalization can foster opportunities for rethinking education, technology and scientific practices that support sustainable development. While the expansion of human consciousness onto virtuality adds layers of representation to the construction of societies, digital media can stimulate awareness of humans’ embodied condition and environmental situatedness. Through the practices they enable, digital technologies reveal that thinking is embodied. I take this as a starting point to reflect on how communication technologies shape environments.
I serve as Treasurer of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics, Organizational Assistant of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies and I represent Germany on the Executive Committee of the International Association for Semiotic Studies.
Selected publications
Lacković, N, Olteanu A. 2024. Relational and Multimodal Higher Education:
Digital, Social and Environmental Perspectives. London: Routledge.
Olteanu, A., Campbell. C. 2023. Biosemiotics for postdigital living: The implications of the implications. Chinese Semiotic Studies 19(1): 161-188.
Olteanu, A., Ciula, A. 2023. Semiotics and digital humanities. In: Bloomsbury Semiotics Vol. 4: Semiotic Movements, eds. Jamin Pelkey, Paul Cobley, pp. 67–86. London: Bloomsbury.
Stables, A., Olteanu, A. 2023. Semiotics in learning and education. In: Bloomsbury Semiotics Vol. 3: Semiotics in the Arts and Social Sciences, eds. Jamin Pelkey, Susan Petrilli & Sophia Melanson Ricciardone, pp. 129–148 London: Bloomsbury.
Olteanu, A. 2022. Learning as becoming conscious: a note on Jablonka and Ginsburg’s notion of learning. Biosemiotics 15(3): 457-467.
Olteanu, A. 2022. Translation form a contemporary media perspective: avoiding culturalism and monolingualism. Social Semiotics 32(1): 143-161.
Olteanu, A. 2021. Multimodal modeling: brigding biosemiotics and social semiotics. Biosemiotics 14(3): 783-805.
Olteanu, A., Florian Rabitz, Augustė Nalivaikė. 2021. A Semiotic Comparison of Mass Media Representations of the Swine Flu and Covid-19 Pandemics: Observing Narcissus narcosis. Punctum 7(1): 45-65.
Lacković, N, Olteanu A. 2021. Rethinking educational theory and practice in times of visual media: Learning as image-concept integration. Educational Philosophy and Theory 53(6): 597-612.
Olteanu, A. 2019. Multiculturalism as multimodal communication: A semiotic perspective. Cham: Springer.
Stables, Andrew, Winfried Nöth, Alin Olteanu, Sébastien Pesce, Eetu Pikkarainen. 2018. Semiotic theory of learning. London: Routledge.
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