Semiotic Society of America

Study of signs and sign-systems

The Semiotic Society of America is the major and leading semiotics organization in North America, serving scholars from many disciplines with common interests in semiotics, the study of signs and sign systems. It was founded in 1975. Its official journal is The American Journal of Semiotics. The Society also publishes the proceedings of its annual conferences. Memberships in the society and publication of the journal are managed by the Philosophy Documentation Center.

As its symbol, the Society uses caduceus, the staff of a messenger bearing a message, as a sign of a sign.

Publications of the Semiotic Society of America

The American Journal of Semiotics, 1981–present
Semiotics: The Proceedings of the Semiotic Society of America, 1980–present
Semiotic Scene: Bulletin of the Semiotic Society of America, 1977-1981
Bulletin of Literary Semiotics, 1975-1977

Presidents

According to the society's official website, the Presidents of the Society have included:

1976: Henry Hiz
1977: Eugen Baer
1978: Thomas G. Winner
1979: Max H. Fisch
1980: Allen Walker Read
1981: Richard Bauman
1982: Harley C. Shands
1983: Irmengard Rauch
1984: Thomas A. Sebeok
1985: Donald Preziosi
1986: Michael Riffaterre
1987: Naomi S. Baron
1988: Jonathan Culler
1989: Bennetta Jules-Rosette
1990: Robert Scholes
1991: Linda Waugh
1992: Nancy Armstrong
1993: (David Savan - died before taking office)
1993: Michael Shapiro
1994: Richard Lanigan
1995: Eugen Baer
1996: Roberta Kevelson
1997: Myrdene Anderson
1998: Jean Umiker-Sebeok
1999: Floyd Merrell
2000: William Pencak
2001: John Deely
2002: Paul Perron
2003: Vincent Colapietro
2004–2005: Cary William Spinks
2006: Joseph Brent
2007: Nathan Houser
2008: Robert Hatten
2009: Thomas Broden
2010: John Coletta
2011: Frank Nuessel
2012: Isaac Catt
2013: André DeTienne
2014: Elliot Gaines
2015: Marcel Danesi
2016: Ted J. Baenziger
2017: Deborah Smith-Shank
2018: Deborah Eicher-Catt
2019: Farouk Y. Seif
2020: Frank Macke
2021: Ronald C. Arnett
2022–2023: Michael Raposa
2023–2024: Hongbing Yu

Honorary members

The "Sebeok fellow" award is the highest honor given by the Semiotic Society of America. The Sebeok fellows are David Savan (1992),^[1] John Deely (1993), Paul Bouissac (1996), Jesper Hoffmeyer (2000), Kalevi Kull (2003), Floyd Merrell (2005), Susan Petrilli (2008), Irmengard Rauch (2011), Paul Cobley (2014), Vincent Colapietro (2018), Nathan Houser (2019), Marcel Danesi (2020).