Thank you to all participants, speakers, organisers, and the entire RaAM community for these stimulating days in Pavia. We hope to see you soon at future RaAM events! ✨

This wonderful event would not have been possible without the dedication of the local organising team. A heartfelt thank you to the Neurolinguistics and Experimental Pragmatics Lab (NEPLab) team, led by Dr. Valentina Bambini.

The seminar celebrated outstanding early-career research with the PhD Presentation Award. Congratulations to Daban Jaff for the poster presentation: “Polarity and Metaphor: A Corpus Study of Holocaust Oral Histories”

The programme featured two inspiring keynote lectures: ▪️Valentina Cuccio: Multimodal Metaphor Processing and the Hypothesis of Graded Embodiment ▪️Hamad Al-Azary: Metaphor Processing: From Neighborhoods to Neurons

Across the three days, the seminar brought together an impressive international community: 🌍 21 oral presentations 📌 44 poster presentations 👥 140 authors 🌎 23 countries represented 🎓 24 bursary recipients

The seminar started with four pre-conference workshops exploring different methodological approaches to metaphor research: ▪️ Metaphor Development: Trends and Tools ▪️ Computational Approaches to Metaphor ▪️ The Neurobiology of Metaphor ▪️ Metaphors in Clinical Contexts

Set within the stunning Palazzo Broletto, in the heart of Pavia’s historic centre, Metaphor in Vitro offered not only an outstanding scientific programme, but also a warm and inspiring atmosphere. Participants were captivated by the charm of Pavia and the beauty of this unique venue.

From 15–17 June 2026, the RaAM community gathered in the beautiful city of Pavia, Italy, for an inspiring three-day seminar hosted by IUSS Pavia. Follow this thread for some highlights from the 9th RaAM Specialised Seminar: Metaphor in Vitro: From Texts to Brains! ✨

Finally, calls for proposals to host future RaAM events are now open: the 2028 Seminar and the 2029 Conference (full details in the picture). We warmly invite members of the community to consider bringing RaAM to their institutions.

We also remind that the 18th RaAM International Conference will take place in 2027 (2–4 June) at the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, with the theme “Metaphor and social reflexivity: controversies, pluralism, mediation”.

We are delighted to congratulate the newly elected members of the Executive Committee for the coming year: @agdorst.bsky.social, Maíra Avelar, Bonnie Ren, @carolinegf.bsky.social, and @drsarahlt.bsky.social. This is now the new EC for the next year (as shown in the picture).

We also heard from PhD student @laurabaiocco.bsky.social, who shared updates on the project she has been carrying out with the support of last year's Researching Metaphor Grant.

Jeannette also presented a report on the Metaphor in Vitro seminar, which brought together 21 oral presentations, 44 posters, 140 authors, and participants from 23 countries. The programme featured two keynote speakers as well as four pre-seminar workshops.

The RaAM 2026 AGM took place during the Metaphor in Vitro seminar in Pavia. Follow this thread for more details about it. 🧶 Our Chair, @jeannettel.bsky.social, opened the meeting by thanking the seminar organizers and the current Executive Committee for their work.

Interesting PhD opportunity for researchers working on metaphor, figurative language, discourse, and sustainability!

We opened the seminar with four workshops on metaphor development, computational methods, neurobiology, and clinical contexts.

Metaphor in vitro: from texts to brains 9th RaAM Seminar 📍 IUSS Pavia 📅 15–17 June 2026 A few glimpses from three days of inspiring talks on metaphor:

We’re excited to share the May 2026 issue of the RaAM newsletter with you. You can now access the newsletter at: www.raam.org.uk/newsletters/. Below are some highlights from this issue: • Message from the Chair A heartfelt message from our Chair, Jeannette, before she passes the torch. 🧵

🗳️ RaAM members can now vote in this year’s RaAM Executive Committee (EC) elections. ℹ️ For information about the candidates and voting instructions, please visit: www.raam.org.uk/memberarea/e... 📅 Voting takes place exclusively online through the RaAM Members Area and is open until June 3.

Nominations for the upcoming elections are now open and will remain open until 15 May. Positions which are up for election in 2026: Chair; Secretary; Communications Officer; Grants & Prizes Officer; and Postgraduate Liaison.

Our upcoming elections are approaching. This is a great opportunity to get involved and contribute to the metaphor community. The positions up for election this year are: • Chair • Secretary • Communications Officer • Grants & Prizes Officer • Postgraduate Liaison

🏷️ Registration fees: Student rate: €200 Regular rate: €300 📅 Registration is open until May 15. ℹ️ For further information, please contact: raamseminar2026@iusspavia.it We look forward to welcoming you to RaAM Seminar 2026.

Once logged in, you will find separate options for seminar and workshop registration. Participants are kindly asked to complete both (if attending workshops). Please note that workshop places are limited, so early registration is strongly recommended.

We are pleased to announce that registration for the RaAM Seminar 2026 is now open. The registration link is available through the members’ area of the RaAM website and can be accessed with an active, paid membership (www.raam.org.uk/memberarea/).

We’re currently preparing our May 2026 Newsletter and welcome contributions from across the community. 📨Submit your news via www.raam.org.uk/newsletters/... by April 20, 2026 (23:59 GMT).

RaAM is happy to offer a limited number of bursaries for its active members to attend RaAM 2026 Specialised Seminar, Metaphor in vitro: from texts to brains, to be held in Pavia (Italy) on 16-17 June 2026.

We are pleased to inform that the deadline for abstract submission for the specialised seminar Metaphor in L2 Acquisition, Learning and Teaching has been extended to 15 March. The seminar is organised by researchers from the Universidad de Extremadura (Spain).

The RaAM 2026 funding opportunities are now open! For detailed information and application guidelines, please visit the RaAM Association website: www.raam.org.uk/about-raam/g....

Interesting online workshop for metaphor researchers: Large Language METAPHORS: New Trends in Computational Approaches to Metaphorical Expressions ℹ️ Full details here: neplab.it/large_langua...

The Call for Papers for the 9th RaAM specialised seminar Metaphor in vitro: From texts to brains, has been extended until January 30, 2026. Submit your abstract: raam2026.sciencesconf.org ℹ️ More info on our website: www.neplab.it/raam_seminar/ (link in bio)