Here is some information on three upcoming conferences that deal in one way or another with African language topics. The first, the 48th Annual Conference of African Linguistics (ACAL), will be held at the University of Indiana in Bloomington, Indiana, US on March 30 - April 2, 2017 (CFP already passed). The other two are organized by groups connected with the British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL): The BAAL - Cambridge University Press Seminar Series (BAAL-CUP), will be held at Aston University in Birmingham, UK on 27-28 April 2017 (CFP deadline Feb. 20); and the BAAL - Language in Africa Special Interest Group (BAAL-LIASIG) Annual Conference, will be held at the University of Reading in Reading, UK on May 12, 2017 (CFP deadline March 31).
The ACAL, run since 2013 by an organization with the same acronym, the Association of Contemporary African Linguistics, is a major annual academic meeting on African languages and linguistics. I personally had the chance to present at ACAL 35 in 2004, and to attend ACAL 38 ten years ago.
This year's conference is hosted by the Department of Linguistics at Indiana University. "The conference will focus on all aspects of African linguistics, from linguistic description to theoretical analysis and sociolinguistics."
Links to registration and the program page (though the latter was blank at the time of this writing).
The BAAL-CUP seminar has as its theme "Minority Languages in New Media: Towards language revitalisation in Europe and Africa." The term "minority language" is a little tricky, but in the African context, I read it as applying to most if not all African languages.
Per the seminar information, it "is intended to identify and discuss emerging trends in the study of minority languages in new media and technology. This includes the ways in which minority languages are supported through their presence in new media, and how minority language users are making use of their languages in digital landscapes traditionally dominated by global languages such as English."
"New Media refers to digital communication platforms such as online news sites, blogs, wikis, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and other Social Media."
Links to the CFP and registration.
The LIA SIG conference this year has the theme "Language without Borders: Multilingual Communication in Africa and the Diaspora."
Per the CFP, topics addressing the theme may include for example: oral communication; multilingualism; language choice; codeswitching; translanguaging in education; and translation.
Links to the CFP and registration.
ACAL 48
The ACAL, run since 2013 by an organization with the same acronym, the Association of Contemporary African Linguistics, is a major annual academic meeting on African languages and linguistics. I personally had the chance to present at ACAL 35 in 2004, and to attend ACAL 38 ten years ago.
This year's conference is hosted by the Department of Linguistics at Indiana University. "The conference will focus on all aspects of African linguistics, from linguistic description to theoretical analysis and sociolinguistics."
Links to registration and the program page (though the latter was blank at the time of this writing).
BAAL-CUP
The BAAL-CUP seminar has as its theme "Minority Languages in New Media: Towards language revitalisation in Europe and Africa." The term "minority language" is a little tricky, but in the African context, I read it as applying to most if not all African languages.
Per the seminar information, it "is intended to identify and discuss emerging trends in the study of minority languages in new media and technology. This includes the ways in which minority languages are supported through their presence in new media, and how minority language users are making use of their languages in digital landscapes traditionally dominated by global languages such as English."
"New Media refers to digital communication platforms such as online news sites, blogs, wikis, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and other Social Media."
Links to the CFP and registration.
BAAL-LIASIG 2017
The LIA SIG conference this year has the theme "Language without Borders: Multilingual Communication in Africa and the Diaspora."
Per the CFP, topics addressing the theme may include for example: oral communication; multilingualism; language choice; codeswitching; translanguaging in education; and translation.
Links to the CFP and registration.
