24 April marked the opening of the the 13th International Conference on English and American Literature and Culture, entitled Beyond Words: Crossing Borders in English Studies. The conference will last three days. During this time, General sessions on British and American literature, general and applied linguistics, translation and cultural studies, the teaching of English as a foreign language and related topics will be accompanied by four thematic sessions: Digital Humanities, James Joyce, Language Contacts and Old and Middle English Literature.

The conference began with a performance by the Camerata Jagellonica Academic Choir. After that, Prof. Elżbieta Górska, Dean of the JU Faculty of Philology, welcomed the guests and expressed her joy at the fact that for the first time in the history, doctoral students will be able to participate in the conference as speakers. In the next address, Dr hab. Ewa Willim, Head of the JU Institute of English Studies, encouraged the participants to "cross intellectual and research borders" during this year's meeting. Finally, the academic part of the conference was inaugurated by two lectures, delivered by Prof. Wayne Franklin from the University of Connecticut and Dr Anne Rower from the Kingston University.