Associations, Research Centers, and Work groups -

Here is a list of associations, research centers, and work groups focused on research in semiotics across the world. Please contact us to update this list along with its website links.

Arbeitsstelle für Semiotik/Research Center for Semiotics (Germany) – A research center founded in 1974 within the Institute for Speech and Communication at Technische Universität Berlin to promote semiotics research, collaborative projects, teaching, publications, and meetings with other semiotic network partners in Germany and abroad.

Asociación Argentina de Semiótica (Argentina) – An organization promoting the study of semiotics through collaborative research, annual conferences, and the publication of its conference proceedings.
Asociación Chilena de Semiótica (Chile) – Founded in 1996, this organization aims to promote semiotics research and teaching in Spain and Latin America.
Asociación de Estudios Semióticos en Colombia (ASES) (Colombia) – An association created to promote and contribute to semiotics research by strengthening international cooperation, publishing research, and organizing academic activities and conferences in the field.
Asociación Española de Semiótica (AES) (Spain) – An organization that aims to promote the discipline of semiotics in Spain through conferences, publications, and other opportunities for collaboration among researchers.
Asociación Peruana de Semiótica (Peru) – An organization founded in 2009 with the goal of promoting the study of semiotics; organizes seminars and conferences.
Asociación Venezolana de Semiótica (AVS) (Venezuela) – An organization founded to promote the study of semiotics through research and collaboration with other organizations and institutions; publications; and events such as seminars, courses, and a biannual national conference.
Association Française de Sémiotique (AFS) (France) – An organization dedicated to publishing research and organizing conferences in semiotics.
Association Marocaine de Sémiotique (Morocco) – A semiotics association founded in 2008 in Meknès to promote exchange among scholars and develop the discipline of semiotics in Morocco. President: Mohamed Bernoussi.
Associazione Italiana Studi Semiotici (AISS) (Italy) – Founded in 1972 in Bologna and reinstated in 2008, this organization is dedicated to the promotion of semiotics studies through roundtables, seminars, conferences, and book presentations.
Brazilian Peircean Semiotics Research Network – a network of Brazilian researchers dedicated to the philosophy and semiotics of Charles S. Peirce. They discuss, share and disseminate their research by publishing academic texts, participating and promoting events. This network was born from the International Center for Peircean Studies (CIEP).
Centre de Recherches Sémiotiques (CeReS), Université de Limoges (France) – Founded in 2000 by Jacques Fontanille, this research center within the Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines aims to promote semiotics and accommodate researchers developing new programs in the field (website in French).
Centre for Cognitive Semiotics, Lund University (Sweden) – Holds seminars and organizes research groups in cognitive semiotics.
Center for Semiotics, Aarhus University (Denmark) – Interdisciplinary center for research and education in semiotics; offers Master’s degree program in cognitive semiotics.

Centro Interdisciplinar de Semiótica da Cultura e da Mídia (CISC), Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (Brazil) – A research center founded in 1992 to promote the study of culture, communication and media from a semiotic perspective.
Centro Internacional de Estudos Peirceanos (CIEP), Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (Brazil) – CIEP organizes conferences and has 3 lines of research: Theoretical Semiotics, Interdisciplinary Semiotics and Specific Semiotics. Seven different Study Groups are active along these lines. Each group promotes events throughout the year, such as lectures, seminars and discussion forums open to those interested in general.
Centro Internazionale Scienze Semiotiche, Università degli Studi di Urbino (Italy) – A research center that aims to promote exchanges and collaboration around research projects, organizes meetings, publishes proceedings, and offers an international Ph.D. in semiotics, with an adjunct optional master’s degree in conjunction with affiliated universities (website in Italian).
Centro di Semiotica e Teoria dell’Immagine Omar Calabrese, Università degli Studi di Siena (Italy) – A research center focused on promoting structuralist semiotics work in textual analysis, organizing conferences, and publishing the peer-reviewed journal Carte Semiotiche: Rivista internazionale di semiotica e teoria dell’immagine (website in Italian).
Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerca sulla Comunicazione – CIRCeThe CIRCe – Interdepartmental Center for Research on Communication aims to promote and support interdisciplinary research in human and social sciences, in order to build a bridge between disciplinary groups, as well as between the academic world and citizens (including policy makers public and private companies). At the moment, CIRCe focuses mainly on cultural semiotics, sociology of communication, history of communication, and interdisciplinary legal studies. It publishes the journal Lexia.
Charles S. Peirce Society (USA) – An organization promoting the study of the work of Charles S. Peirce and its ongoing influence in the fields of intellectual endeavor to which he contributed.

C.U.B.E. Centro Universitario Bolognese di Etnosemiotica. The Bolognese University Center for Ethnosemiotics was established at the Department of Arts of the University of Bologna with the aim of producing research and providing services in the field of investigations into everyday behavior.
Cyprus Semiotics Association (Cyprus) – An academic organization that aims to promote and develop the science of semiotics and its different branches by organizing conferences, trainings, seminars, lectures and workshops, as well as publishing writings relevant to semiotics in Cyprus.
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Semiotik (DGS) (German Society for Semiotic Studies) (Germany) – A semiotics association founded in 1975 that organizes conferences and publishes the journal Zeitschrift für Semiotik (website in German).
Federación Latinoamericana de Semiótica (FELS) (Argentina) – Founded in 1987 in Rosario, Argentina, this organization publishes and promotes semiotics research and colloquia in Latin America.
GESC: Grupo de Estudios de Semiótica de la Cultura, Fundación Ortega-Marañon (Spain) – A research center dedicated to collaborative investigation; organizes conferences and publishes work in semiotics. Whether this research center remains active is unclear (since the death of its director Jorge Lozano in 2021).
Grupo de Investigaciones Semióticas, Centro de Estudios de los Discursos Sociales (CEDIS), Universidad Nacional del Litoral (Argentina) – Semiotic Research Groupd directed by María Eugenia De Zan. Their main objective is to investigate the articulations that mediate between linguistic, visual and audiovisual texts in specific discursive configurations (educational, media, political, scientific, artistic, etc.), providing comprehensive training in the principles and methods developed by general semiotics and specific semiotics.
Hellenic Semiotics Society (Greece) – An organization promoting the discipline of semiotics in Greece.

Institute for Edusemiotic Studies (Melbourne, Australia). The Institute is devoted to research, development and dissemination of results in the new field of inquiry: Edusemiotics. Edusemiotics is an integrative conceptual framework at the crossover of semiotics (the science of signs) and educational theory/philosophy of education. Dr. Inna Semetsky serves as a Chief Consultant to IES.

International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS) (2013) – (IACS) Founded at Aarhus University in connection with the Eighth Conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS), this organization aims to advance research, facilitate scholarly exchange and organize conferences and other events in the field of cognitive semiotics.
International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS) – The leading international semiotics organization founded in 1969 by a group of scholars including Algirdas Julien Greimas, Roman Jakobson, Julia Kristeva, Emile Benveniste, Thomas A. Sebeok, and Jurij M. Lotman.
International Association for Visual Semiotics (IAVS) (France) – Founded in 1989, this organization aims to gather semioticians all over the world who are interested in images and visual signification, without privileging any particular interpretation of semiotics and without favoring any semiotic tradition.
Research Center for Linguistic Semiotics (Tianjin Foreign Studies University, China).

International Semiotics Institute (ISI) (Lithuania) – Founded in 1998 in Imatra, Finland, and moved to Kaunas, Lithuania, in 2014, it is currently at the ISI Department of General Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic.

International Society for Biosemiotic Studies – An organization aimed at collaboration among scholars dedicated to biosemiotic studies and propagating knowledge of this field of study to researchers in related areas, as well as to the public in general.
Istituto di argomentazione, linguistica e semiotica (IALS), Università della Svizzera italiana (Switzerland) – A research center within the faculty of communication sciences that is devoted to research and teaching in the field of verbal communication, semiotics, discourse and dialogue analysis, argumentation and rhetoric.
Laboratoire de résistance sémiotique, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) (Canada) – An open research community founded in 2013 by doctoral students in semiology to redefine the importance of semiotic studies in general knowledge production and their relevance within academia; supports research and organizes symposia.
LISaV: Laboratorio Internazionale di Semiotica a Venezia, University of Venice (IUAV) (Italy) – A semiotics research center focused on the study of art, culture, and communication; brings together students and researchers from the department of arts and industrial design.
Médiations Sémiotiques (France) – A research group focused on the semiotic study of information and communication processes through an integrated approach to meaning; issues publications, promotes collaborative research projects, and organizes symposia.

Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (Finland) – The Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS) was founded in 1987 in Imatra, Finland, and has arranged a number of international conferences.
Penn Semiotics Lab – The Penn Semiotics Lab was founded in the year 2000 as a research unit in the Department of Anthropology. Its basic rationale is to facilitate faculty and student research, and to encourage collaborative projects among participants. The Lab’s participants include an active group of faculty and students from a variety of departments at Penn and other universities. Their interests span several fields and thematic areas in the study of language, culture and society, including spheres of education, law, science, medicine, business, media, religion, politics, and other aspects of human affairs.
Research Center for Semiotics, Technische Universität Berlin (in the Institute of Language and Communication).

Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Kulturtheorie und Semiotik (Swiss Society for Cultural Theory and Semiotics) (Switzerland) – Founded in 1981 under the name Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Semiotik/Association Sémiotique Suisse (SGS/ASS) (Swiss Society for Semiotics) and renamed in 2009, this organization produces various publications and organizes conferences, roundtables and colloquia in semiotics.

Semiosis Research Center (South Korea) – An institute founded in 2010 through Hankuk University of Foreign Studies to propose new research and educational paradigms in semiotics and connect with other research centers and civil society organizations in South Korea and abroad.

Sémiotická skupina (Czech Republic) – A professional group of the Czech Society for Cybernetics and Informatics founded in 1974 under the leadership of Czech logician Otakar Zichthat and composed of Czech and Slovak specialists; aims to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue in semiotics.
Semiotics and Visual Communication Lab (Cyprus) – Unit within the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts at Cyprus University of Technology established in September 2009 to promote research, theory and graphic design practice, as well as explore the role of semiotic theories within visual communication.

South-East European Center for Semiotic Studies, New Bulgarian University (Bulgaria) – Founded in 1998, the center promotes research in theoretical and applied semiotics, particularly in cultural studies, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, media, marketing and technology; organizes the yearly International Early Fall School of Semiotics and Spring School of Semiotics.

Suomen Semiotiikan Seura (Semiotic Society of Finland) (Finland) – Founded in 1979, the association promotes research, teaching and exchange in semiotics through activities that include an annual symposium and lecture series.
Institute of Applied Semiotics, Tatarstan Academy of Sciences – The Tatarstan Academy of Sciences Institute of Applied Semiotics works in the scientific field called “Semiotic modeling in humanitites”, which is connected with fundamental and applied research for the following classes of problems: linguistic models in intelligent computer technology; machine translation; corpus research on Tatar language for humanitarian and educational applications; speech technologies; ontological modeling; and designing of digital textbooks and learning systems.
Tehran Semiotics Circle (Iran)

Toronto Semiotics Circle (Canada) – An association that hosts academic symposia and other events with the goal of promoting research and facilitating communication among scholars interested in semiotics.
Virtuelle Zentrum für kultursemiotische Forschung – The Virtual Center for Cultural Semiotic Research (VZKF) is an interdisciplinary and transinstitutional open science network in which scientists from more than 30 international and national universities currently participate. The research areas cover a broad spectrum: In addition to cultural studies, linguistics, literary and media semiotics, editorial studies and journalism, image animation, film architecture, automotive media system research, game studies, gender studies, digital humanities, cognitive poetics and economic semiotics are represented under the umbrella of the center. With writings on cultural and media semiotics, the VZKF has its own series of publications published by Schüren and SKMS | Online edition in Open Journal Systems via a journal that serves the transfer of knowledge in full open access.