Conferences

“Rohingya” Chosen 2017 Name of the Year

Rohingya displaced Muslims, Tasnim News Agency, Author: Seyyed Mahmoud Hosseini

“Rohingya” was chosen the Name of the Year for 2017 by the American Name Society at its annual meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah on January 5, 2018.

The Myanmar army has targeted the Rohingya, an Islamic group, and has perpetrated massacres that have the earmarks of genocide. Myanmar’s government has tried to prevent people, including Pope Francis, from using the name Rohingya. The UN’s Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has said “To strip their name from them is dehumanising to the point where you begin to believe that anything is possible.”

Maria was chosen ANS’s Personal Name of the Year. Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in September. The irony of a name associated by many in Puerto Rico with the Virgin Mary’s compassion being given to a storm whose aftermath has led to questioning the compassion of the federal government was cited by ANS members as a reason for the choice before the vote.

#MeToo was chosen as the Miscellaneous Name of the Year. This is the name of a movement encouraging those who have been sexually assaulted or harassed to share their experiences by using the #MeToo hashtag on various social media platforms.

Charlottesville was chosen as the Place Name of the Year.  This Virginia college town became a symbol of racism and resistance to it when an alt-right/Neo-Nazi march there on August 12 resulted in the death of counterprotestor Heather Heyer, and Donald Trump later referred to some of the white nationalist protestors as “good people.”

Nambia was chosen as Fictional Name of the Year. In September, President Trump lavished praise on the health care system of Nambia during a speech at the United Nations. Just one little problem: There is no such country. (Trump may have meant Namibia, an actual African country.) Trump mentioned “Nambia” twice in the speech.

The American Name Society is a scholarly organization founded in 1951 devoted to studying all aspects of names and naming. The Name of the Year vote has been held since 2004. “Aleppo“ was the 2016 Name of the Year. “Caitlyn Jenner” won for 2015, “Ferguson” for 2014, “Francis” for 2013, and “Sandy” for 2012.

For further information contact Dr. Cleveland Evans, chair of the Name of the Year committee, at cevans@bellevue.edu or 402-210-7458.

Call for Papers: LRI 4 Workshop, Language Policy – Language Use – Language Standard, Merano, Italy, June 7-8 2018

The 4th Workshop of the Linguistic Colloquium: Language, Region, Identity (LRI 4) will be held from the 7th to the 8th of June 2018 in Merano, Italy.  The purpose of this colloquium is to foster scientific exchanges within the Alpine region of Italy, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.  The specific areas of linguistic research to be covered in the workshop include Applied Linguistics, Language Documentation, and Sociolinguistics. The theme of the workshop is “Language Policy – Language Use – Language Standard”.  New researchers (PhD students and post-docs) are especially encouraged to submit an abstract for possible presentation.  The deadline for submission is February 15, 2018.  You can find the official Call for Papers here, and more information at the LRI website.

Call for Papers: SEM2018—7th Joint Conference on Lexical and Computational Semantics, New Orleans, Louisiana, June 5-6 2018

In New Orleans, Louisiana (USA), the 7th Joint Conference on Lexical and Computational Semantics (SEM2018) will be held from the 5th to the 6th of June 2018, co-located with NAACL 2018. The purpose of this conference is to bring together researchers working in the fields of semantics of natural languages and its computational modeling. The conference embraces symbolic and probabilistic approaches. The Call for Papers can be found here. Paper submission are due March 2, 2018.

Call for Papers: TOTh 2018 (11th International Conference on Terminology and Ontology), Chambéry, France, June 7-8, 2018

From the 7th to the 8th of June 2018, the international conference, “Terminology and Ontology: Theories and Applications” (TOTh2018) will take place in Chambéry, France at the University Savoie Mont-Blanc. The purpose of TOTh is to bring together researchers and practitioners who work on terminology, language, and knowledge engineering. The annual events that TOTh organizes include a conference, a training session, and a Workshop. Under the patronage of an international scientific committee, the TOTh Conferences cover an extensive field of studies and research concerning terminology and/or ontology. The conference languages are French and English; and the deadline for abstracts is January 26, 2018. Interested in learning more? Details about the conference can be found at the website, and the call for papers can be downloaded here.

Call for Papers: Names in Writing, NORNA 48th symposium, Gothenburg, Sweden, Nov 29-30 2018

From the 29th to the 30th of November 2018, a conference devoted to the subject of “Names in Writing” will take place in Gothenburg, Sweden. It will give scholars a chance to reflect on the significance of writing in the study of names and provide a platform to discuss approaches from different fields. Among the many themes to be addressed at this event are the graphemes of names; names an orthography; written names in language contact; written names in the public sphere. The deadline for 300 word (excluding references) abstract submissions is February 20, 2018. 

The conference is arranged by the Department of Languages and Literatures, Gothenburg University, and Institute for Language and Folklore, Gothenburg. Venue: Olof Wijksgatan 6, Gothenburg (“Gamla hovrätten”).

The call for papers can be found here.

Call for Papers: “Languages Memory”, Language Acts and Worldmaking, London, UK, June 13-14 2018

The first conference by Language Acts and Worldmaking will be held at Bush House, London from the 13th to the 14th of June 2018. This conference, called “Languages Memory”, will be devoted to exploring the ways in which languages are experienced, taught, and researched. The call for papers is now open and can be found here. The deadline for the call for papers is 15 December 2017.

Here are some key themes and ideas for proposals:

  • Worldmaking and languages
  • History, legacy and future of UK, EU and international languages policies and comparative perspectives
  • Language ideologies and pedagogies
  • Languages in moments of crisis
  • New ecologies of memory
  • Digital methods and memory practices in relation to Modern Languages
  • Technologies of language learning across time
  • Languages and coloniality; the postcolonial and the transnational
  • Languages and the archive; mnemonics and memory palaces
  • Lost languages, linguicide, and future languages
  • Remembering language as play
  • Diasporic communities and language memory

Call for Papers: The Newness of “Little Women”, American Literature Association Conference, San Francisco, CA, May 24-27 2018

The American Literature Association will offer a roundtable session on “The Newness of Little Women” in celebration of the novel’s 150th anniversary in 2018. The conference will take place in San Francisco, CA, from May 24-27 2018.  Some of the questions to be explored include In what ways did Alcott’s book revolutionize the novel as a genre or form? In what ways did Alcott’s slangy diction transform the language of American literary realism? What are Little Women’s most distinctive contributions to the development of literary or popular culture? How did the novel change the ways writers could represent young people, mothers and families, art and ambition? How does Little Women represent in unique or ephemeral ways its own moment in history? Interested participants are encouraged to send in 300-word abstracts by email to Gregory Eiselein eiselei@ksu.edu and Anne K. Phillips annek@ksu.edu . The deadline for proposals is Friday, January 19, 2018. Early submissions welcome. The call for papers can be found here.