At the end of May 2026, I had the pleasure of travelling to Koblenz, Germany, to attend the 47th International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English conference (ICAME47), held from May 26 to 30.
ICAME remains one of the longest-established and most vibrant venues for corpus linguistics, bringing together researchers working with English language data across theoretical, methodological, and applied domains. This year’s theme—“A Confluence of Corpus Research in the Age of AI”—proved both timely and generative, setting the tone for a conference that was as forward-looking as it was grounded in tradition. My main reason for attending was twofold: first, to co-organise a pre-conference workshop titled “Corpus-Linguistic Approaches to Reddit” together with Thomas C. Messerli (University of Basel) and Sven Leuckert (Technische Universität Dresden), and second, to present my co-authored paper, “Evaluative practices and persuasion in online debates: a corpus-based study of /r/changemyview.” Both experiences turned out to be highlights of the week.
The pre-conference workshop, held on May 26, was a particularly rewarding endeavour. Over the past few years, Reddit has become an increasingly important site for corpus-based research into online discourse, and the workshop aimed to bring together scholars working with this complex and fascinating dataset. The response exceeded expectations: the workshop featured a series of excellent presentations that explored Reddit from multiple angles, and the room was crowded despite the summer heat. What was especially striking was the shared sense that Reddit data necessitates both methodological innovation and theoretical reflection, particularly given its conversational, multi-participant, and often highly contextualised nature. As a result, we are now planning a special issue based on the workshop, which will bring together selected contributions and further develop this emerging area of research.
Beyond the academic programme, Koblenz itself proved to be an ideal host city. Situated at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle rivers, it offers a striking combination of natural beauty and historical depth. The conference venue, the University of Koblenz, is located close to the Moselle, providing a scenic backdrop for the week’s events for anyone who walked to the venue across the bridge. One of the most memorable moments was the welcome reception, held high above the city at the fortress overlooking the point where the two rivers meet. Watching the sun set over the Rhine and Moselle from the cliffs was a reminder that conferences are not only about papers and panels, but also about shared experiences and informal exchanges.
