On the evening of March 14, 2025, SFS hosted Lecture 272 of the Foreign Languages and Culture Forum and the 26th lecture of the Corpus Linguistics Masterclass Series. Titled Corpus Linguistics and Discourse around Vaccinations, this online lecture invited Professor Elena Semino— Distinguished Professor at Lancaster University (UK) and Director of the ESRC-CASS Center. The high-level dialogue and Q&A session were chaired by Professor Tony McEnery, who is a world-leading corpus linguistics scholar, Distinguished Professor at Lancaster University, and Chair Professor at XJTU. Organized by Associate Professor Li Yingyu from SFS, the event attracted nearly 100 participants including faculty members, students, and representatives from peer institutions.

The forum continued its format featuring High-level Dialogue, Keynote Lecture, and Interactive Q&A session. During the dialogue, Professors Semino and McEnery engaged in an in-depth exchange exploring Semino's academic journey, the inspiration behind the groundbreaking vaccine discourse research, methodological approaches, and strategies for translating academic findings into real impact. In the keynote lecture, Professor Semino presented a comparative analysis of vaccine discourses from Victorian Britain to contemporary society. Utilizing corpus linguistics methodologies with historical texts, Professor Semino revealed striking temporal variations in vaccine hesitancy and its evolving manifestations across centuries. The forum culminated in a vibrant Q&A session where both scholars addressed pressing academic topics including practical applications of corpus methods, bridging theoretical research to societal practice, and navigating scholarly publishing challenges.

As part of the masterclass series, the forum underscored corpus linguistics' role in analyzing social issues and historical changes, demonstrating the unique value of objective language data in research.