From Thursday, January 2 through Sunday, January 5, 2020, the American Dialect Society will hold its annual meeting in conjunction with the Linguistic Society of America in New Orleans, at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. UPDATE: You may now register for the American Dialect Society 2020 conference here.
Monday, August 5, is the deadline for poster and 20-minute presentation proposals. We are especially interested in proposals based on research that has not been previously presented elsewhere.
Proposals should address topics related to English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it. We encourage topics related to language and varieties of English in New Orleans and Louisiana as well as lexicography, pedagogy, linguistic atlas projects, linguistic landscapes, non-English dialects, and public language-awareness programs.
Abstracts of no more than 500 words will be submitted, reviewed, and processed for ADS2020 via the EasyChair system using the following Web site:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ads2020
Three important notes about submitting through EasyChair, especially if you’ve never done it before:
- Because EasyChair publishes conference proceedings, you’ll see the option to upload a complete paper — just ignore that option.
- EasyChair is based in England and its clock keeps Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), so submissions will close automatically at 23:59 GMT, which is not a North American end of the day. We recommend submitting your abstract on or before August 4th, because the system will not accept late submissions.
- The system will not allow you to upload an abstract longer than 500 words, including title, references, etc. If the system won’t accept your submission, check to see if you’ve inadvertently exceeded the word limit.
This year a poster session will again be available. If you prefer to present a poster rather than a 20-minute paper, please say so with your proposal.
Proposals will be judged anonymously by a team of ADS members. If your proposal is accepted, you’ll be asked for an abstract of no more than 100 words for the LSA program.
Presenters must be current members of the American Dialect Society. Do not send the same proposal to both ADS and LSA. We also discourage submissions that have been presented at the previous NWAV conference.
Panels: The ADS Executive Committee has the following policy regarding panels (besides the teaching panel): Only especially timely panels will be considered for the programs of annual meetings. If you have questions about the policy or would like to propose an especially timely panel, please contact Kathryn Remlinger at remlingk@gvsu.edu.
Audio-visual equipment: An LCD projector with sound will be available for all presentations, along with a microphone. If you will need other equipment, please say so when you send your proposal.
Schedule: The meeting will follow this schedule:
- Thursday, January 2: Executive Council and annual business meeting in afternoon. Program session in late afternoon, followed by Word of the Year and Word of the Decade nominations.
- Friday, January 3: Program sessions in early morning and all afternoon. Poster session in late morning. Words of the Year and Words of the Decade vote in early evening.
- Saturday, January 4: Program sessions in morning and afternoon; Annual Luncheon in between. Luncheon speaker: Sonja Lanehart, University of Texas-San Antonio, on a subject to be announced.
- Sunday, January 5: Program sessions in morning.
Session chairs: If you’re interested in chairing a session, contact Kathryn Remlinger at remlingk@gvsu.edu.
Travel grants for students: Two travel grants of $500 each will be awarded to students whose papers have been chosen for the program. Furthermore, all students who are members of ADS are invited to attend the Annual Luncheon for free.
Travel grant for an ADS member: The eighth annual Audrey Duckert Memorial Travel Award of $500 to attend the Annual Meeting will be given to an ADS member. The recipient will be chosen by ADS President Michael Adams. Applications in the form of a letter to President Adams will be due after the program for the Annual Meeting has been determined. Audrey Duckert was a long-time member of ADS and co-founder of the Dictionary of American Regional English.
Hotel and registration: ADS members will be eligible to reserve rooms and register for the meeting at LSA member rates. For details see the website www.lsadc.org.
Future LSA-ADS meetings: 2021: San Francisco, CA, San Francisco Marriott Marquis, 7-10 January; 2022: Washington, DC, Washington Hilton, 6-9 January.
WOTY and WOTD: As we have done for a quarter of a century, we will choose candidates for Word of the Year on Thursday and vote for our WOTY the next day. At this meeting it’s also time to choose Word of the Decade 2010-2019. Nominations for Words of the Year or the Decade can be submitted all year long to woty@americandialect.org.