Alin Olteanu is an established researcher in semiotics, broadly. He is a leading scholar in semiotic approaches to education and literacies. He has a vast international experience, having conducted research projects at several universities and published prolifically on topics such as education, literacy, multiculturalism, cognition and technology.

Currently, he is particularly interested in how ongoing digitalization is extending cognition, pluralizing social representation modalities and producing new imaginaries.              

Alin is the book reviews editor of the journal Social Semiotics (Taylor & Francis) and vice-editor of the book series Numanities – Arts and Humanities in Progress (Springer). He reviews for many journals in the areas of semiotics, linguistics and education.

Peer reviewed journal articles

• Hocquet, A., Wieber, F., Gramelsberger, G., Hinsen, K., Diesmann, M., Pasquini, F., Landström, C., Peters, B., Kasprowicz, D., Borrelli, A., Roth, P., Lee, C. A. I., Olteanu, A., Böschen, S. 2024. Software in science is ubiquitous, yet overlooked. Nature Computational Science.

• Olteanu, A., Ongstad, S. 2024. Utterance-genre-lifeworld and sign-habit-Umwelt compared as phenomenologies. Integrating Socio- and Biosemiotics.Biosemiotics. 

• Gómez, S., Higuera, C. R., Coca, J. R., Olteanu, A. 2024. Transhumanism, society and education. An edusemiotic approach.Studies in Philosophy of Education 43: 177–193.   

• Campbell, C., Olteanu, A. 2023. The Challenge of Postdigital Literacy: Extending Multimodality and Social Semiotics for a New. Postdigital Science and Education, online first.   

• Boom, J. van, Olteanu A. 2023. “Have you not heard, my soul?” The Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete as a multimodal text.Sign Systems Studies 51(2): 301-328.   

• Olteanu, A., Campbell, C. 2023. Biosemiotics for postdigital living: The implications of the implications.Chinese Semiotic Studies 19(1): 161-188.   

• Olteanu, Alin. 2022. Learning as becoming conscious: A note on Jablonka and Ginsburg’s notion of learning.Biosemiotics 15(3): 457-467.  

• Olteanu, Alin. 2022. Translation from a Contemporary Media Perspective: Avoiding culturalism and monolingualism.Social Semiotics 32(1): 143-161.  

• Olteanu, A., Rabitz, F., Nalivaikė, A. 2021. A semiotic comparison of mass media representations of the swine flu and Covid-19 pandemics: Observing Narcissus narcosis.Punctum 7(1): 45-65.  

• Olteanu, A. 2021. Multimodal Modeling: Bridging Biosemiotics and Social Semiotics.Biosemiotics 14(3): 783-805.  

• Campbell, C., Lackovic, N., Olteanu, A. 2021. A “Strong” Approach to Sustainability Literacy: Embodied Ecology and Media.Philosophies 6(14), DOI 10.3390/philosophies6010014.  

• Rabitz, F., Olteanu, A., Jurkevičienė, J., Budžytė, A. 2021. A topic network analysis of the system turn in the environmental sciences.Scientometrics 126: 2107-2140.  

• Lackovic, N., Olteanu, A. 2020. 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., Campbell, C., Feil, S. 2020. Naturalizing models: New perspectives in a Peircean key.Biosemiotics 13(2): 179-197.  

• Campbell, C., Olteanu A., Feil. S. 2020. Peirce’s anti-psychologism and learning theory.Chinese Semiotic Studies 17(1): 175-197.  

• Olteanu, Alin. 2019. Schematic enough to be safe from kidnappers: the semiotics of Charles Peirce as transitionalist pragmatism.Journal of Philosophy of Education 53(4): 788-806.  

• Olteanu, A., Campbell, C. 2019. Education, Signs, and the History of Ideas: An interview with Alin Olteanu. Chinese Semiotic Studies, 15(2): 275-288.  

• Campbell, C., Olteanu, A., Kull, K. 2019. Learning and knowing as semiosis: Extending the conceptual apparatus of semiotics.Sign Systems Studies 47(3/4): 352-381.  

• Olteanu, A., Rabitz, F., Jurkevičienė, J., Budžytė, A. 2019. The case for a semiotic method in Earth system science: Semantic networks of environmental research.Sign Systems Studies 47(3/4): 552-589.  

• Olteanu, Alin, Stables, A. 2018. Learning and Adaptation from a Semiotic Perspective.Sign Systems Studies 46(4): 409–434.  

• Feil, S., Olteanu, A. 2018. Abduction, Hermeneutics and the Interpretation of Interpretations.Human Arenas 1(2): 206-222.  

• Olteanu, A., Campbell, C. 2018. A Short Introduction to Edusemiotics.Chinese Semiotic Studies, 14(2): 245-260.  

• Olteanu, Alin. 2016. The Implications for Education of Peirce’s agapist principle.Semiotica 212: 59-80.  

• Olteanu, A., Kambouri-Danos, M., Stables, A. 2016. Predicating from an early age: Edusemiotics and the potential of children’s preconceptions. Studies in Philosophy and Education 35(6): 621-640.  

• Olteanu, Alin. 2014. The semiosic evolution of education.Journal of Philosophy of Education 48(3): 457-473.                           

Books

• Lackovic, N., Olteanu, A. 2023. Relational and Multimodal Higher Education: Digital, Social and Environmental Perspectives. London: Routledge.  

• Olteanu, Alin. 2019. Multiculturalism as Multimodal Communication: A Semiotic Perspective. Cham: Springer

• Stables, A., Nöth, W., Olteanu, A., Pikkarainen, E., Pesce, S. 2018. Semiotic Theory of Learning: New Perspectives in the Philosophy of Education. New York: Routledge.   

• Olteanu, Alin. 2015. Philosophy of Education in the Semiotics of Charles Peirce: a Cosmology of Learning and Loving. Oxford: Peter Lang.

Chapters in collected volumes

• Olteanu, A., Campbell C. 2023. Biosemiotic systems theory: An embodied and ecological approach to culture. In: Claudio R. Higuera & Juan R. Coca. Eds. Biosocial World: Biosemiotics and Biosociology, pp. 75-98. Valladolid: University of Valladolid Press.  

• Stables, A., Olteanu, A. 2023. Semiotics in learning and education. Jamin, Pelkey, Susan Petrilli & Soplia Melanson Ricciardone. Eds. In: Bloomsbury Semiotics Vol. 3: Semiotics in the Arts and Social Sciences, pp. 129–148. London: Bloomsbury.   

• Olteanu, A., Ciula, A. 2023. Semiotics and digital humanities. In: Jamin Pelkey & Paul Cobley. Eds. Bloomsbury Semiotics Vol. 4: Semiotic Movements, pp. 67–86. London: Bloomsbury.   

• Olteanu, Alin. 2022. Two worlds at once: the semiotic non-dualism of Dumitru Borţun. In: Borţun, Ileana, Borţun, Vladimir, Matei, Corina. Eds. Din dragoste pentru om: Un liber amicorum dedicat lui Dumitru Borţun [Out of love for the human: A liber amicorum dedicated to Dumitru Bortun], pp. 66-74. ISBN 978-606-8944-60-9. Bucharest: Spandugino.  

• Olteanu, Alin. 2021. Cultural Pluralism and Communication. Oxford Bibliographies in 'Communication'. Ed. Moy, Patricia. New York: Oxford University Press, 22 September.  

• Olteanu, Alin. 2021. An overlooked episode in the history of semiotics: The iconoclast controversy and its relevance for the iconic turn. In: Boom, J.S. van, Põder, T.-A. Eds.  Sign, method and the sacred: New directions in semiotic methodologies for the study of religion, pp. 125-146. Berlin: de Gruyter.  

• Olteanu, Alin. 2021. A Proposal for a Biosemiotic Approach to Digitalization: Literacy as Modeling Competence. In: Biosemiotics and Evolution: The Natural Foundations of Meaning and Symbolism, eds., Pagni, E., Simanke, R.T. 65-85. Cham: Springer.   

• Olteanu, Alin. 2019. Multimodal propositions and metaphors in the movie Submarine: an application of Peirce’s doctrine of Dicisigns. In: Meaning & Co.: The Interdisciplinarity of Communication, Semiotics and Multimodality, eds. Olteanu, A., Stables, A., Borţun, D. 105-126. Cham: Springer.  

• Olteanu, Alin. 2018. Semiotics as a proposal for a Numanistic educational programme. In: Readings in Numanities: Volume 1, eds. Andreică, O., Olteanu, A. 3-17. Cham: Springer.  

• Olteanu, Alin. 2017. Reading History: Education, Semiotics and Edusemiotics. In: Edusemiotics – A Handbook, ed. Semetsky, I. pp. 193-205. New York: Springer.  

• Olteanu, A., Kambouri-Danos, M. 2017. Experiential nature: learning by living. In: Philosophy as Interplay and Dialogue: Viewing Landscapes within Philosophy of Education, eds. Strand, T., Smith, R., Pirrie, A., Gregoriou, M., Papastephanou, M. Berlin: Lit Verlag.                 

Edited volumes

• Olteanu A., Cobley, P. 2023. Eds. Semiotics and its masters: Volume 2. Boston, Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.  

• Lates, T., Olteanu A. Eds. 2022. The Philosophical entanglements of Charles S. Peirce’s semiotics.Revue Roumaine de Philosophie, Special section, 66(1).   

• Olteanu, A., Stables, A. Eds. 2018. Learning and Adaptation: Semiotic Perspectives. Sign Systems Studies, Special Issue 46(4). (AHCI)  

• Olteanu, A. Stables, A., Borţun, D. Eds. 2019. Meaning & Co.: The Interdisciplinarity of Communication, Semiotics and Multimodality. Cham: Springer.  

• Andreică, O., Olteanu, A. Eds. 2018. Readings in Numanities. Cham: Springer.  

Reviews

• Olteanu, A., Romanini, V. 2022. Biosemiotic Achievement Award for the Year 2021. Biosemiotics 15: 395–399.  

• Olteanu, A. 2016. Review of Edusemiotics: Semiotic Philosophy as Educational Foundation.Social Semiotics 26(5): 582-586.

Alin has a broad international experience of teaching courses in semiotics, media studies and linguistics. He has supervised BA and MA theses in these same areas.