American Dialect Society

Please read these instructions carefully as they have changed from previous years.

The American Dialect Society will hold its annual meeting in conjunction with the Linguistic Society of America Thursday, January 5, 2023, through Sunday January 8, 2023, in Denver, Colorado. The meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center.

Monday, August 15, 2022, is the deadline for poster and 20-minute paper proposals. (Extended from the original deadline of August 1.)

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 as well as lexicography, pedagogy, linguistic atlas projects, linguistic landscapes, non-English dialects, and public language-awareness programs. 

Important: You should only include the title of the study at the top of the abstract. Do not include your name or other identifying information on the abstract. Abstracts that include author’s names will not be considered. Please indicate in your abstract if the proposal is for a paper or poster. Do not send the same proposal to both American Dialect Society and Linguistic Society of America, and do not submit proposals based on research that has been previously presented elsewhere.

Submissions are limited to two per author, one paper and one poster, one of which must be co-authored. If you submit two co-authored proposals with the same or different co-author(s), only one proposal can be for a paper and the other must be for a poster. 

Posters: At this meeting the poster session will be in the online community space Gather. We encourage those of you who may not be able to attend the meeting in-person to submit a proposal for the poster session. 

Abstracts of no more than 500 words as a PDF will be submitted, reviewed, and processed for ADS2023 via the EasyChair system using the following website: 

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ads2023

Three important notes about submitting through EasyChair, especially if you’re new to this system:

1. Because EasyChair publishes conference proceedings, you’ll see the option to upload a complete paper—just ignore that option.
2. 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 July 31st because the system will not accept late submissions.
3. 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.

Proposals will be judged anonymously by a minimum of two reviewers. If your proposal is accepted, you’ll be asked for an abstract of no more than 100 words for the Linguistic Society of America conference program. 

Presenters must be current members of the American Dialect Society. 

Panels: The American Dialect Society 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. Typically, panels are given an hour and a half to present and are limited to three presenters to allow for an overall introduction, conclusion, and discussion. If you have questions about the policy or would like to propose an especially timely panel, please contact Patricia Cukor-Avila patricia.cukor-avila@unt.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 begin on Thursday afternoon, January 5, with the Executive Council and annual business meeting, followed by program sessions. The Word of the Year (WOTY) nominations will be held Thursday evening with the WOTY vote in the early evening of Friday, January 6. The Annual American Dialect Society luncheon will be held on Saturday, January 7. The meeting will end early afternoon on Sunday, January 8.

Words of the Year: 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. Nominations for WOTY can be submitted all year long to woty@americandialect.org. 

Session chairs: If you’re interested in chairing a session, contact Patricia Cukor-Avila patricia.cukor-avila@unt.edu

Travel grants for students: Two travel grants of $500 each will be awarded at the meeting to students whose papers or posters have been chosen for the program. Please send nominations in the form of a letter to American Dialect Society Vice President and Program Chair, Patricia Cukor-Avila patricia.cukor-avila@unt.edu. The deadline for nominations is October 31, 2022. Nominations will not be accepted after this date. 

Travel grant for an American Dialect Society member: The ninth annual Audrey Duckert Memorial Travel Award of $500 to attend the Annual Meeting will be given to an American Dialect Society member. Audrey Duckert was a long-time member of American Dialect Society and co-founder of the Dictionary of American Regional English. The recipient will be chosen by American Dialect Society President Kathryn Remlinger: remlingk@gvsu.edu. Applications in the form of a letter to President Remlinger are due October 31, 2022. Applications sent after this date will not be considered. 

Meeting and hotel registration: American Dialect Society members are eligible to reserve rooms and register for the meeting at Linguistic Society of America member rates. If you are not a member you can access membership information at https://americandialect.org/membership. American Dialect Society members will need to register for both American Dialect Society and Linguistic Society of America through the LSA website. Registration for the American Dialect Society luncheon can be done at the same time through the Linguistic Society of America website.

(Updated December 27, 2013.) From Thursday, January 2, 2014, through Saturday, January 4, the American Dialect Society will hold its next annual meeting in Minneapolis, hosted as usual by the Linguistic Society of America.

Download the preliminary full schedule (updated December 20), paper abstracts, and poster abstracts. These files will be updated with more details as the conference approaches.

HOTEL: Minneapolis Hilton, 1001 Marquette Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55403. See: http://www.linguisticsociety.org/event/lsa-2014-annual-meeting. The basic hotel room rate is $99/night for a single or double room. Larger rooms and rooms on the Executive Level are available as well at discounted rates. Attendees should use the link or phone numbers provided (and mention the LSA meeting if they’re reserving by phone) in order to get the discounted rate.

REGISTRATION: See: http://www.linguisticsociety.org/event/lsa-2014-annual-meeting. ADS members may register at LSA member rates. ADS members who are not members of LSA may click on the large red “Register for meeting” button at the top of the page. They’ll be asked to self-identify as a student registrant or a regular (i.e., non-student) registrant, and will initially be charged the nonmember rate. At checkout, they should use the coupon codes SSREGULAR (for regular registrants) or SSSTUDENT (for student registrants).

ADS REGISTRATION: Additional and entirely optional, but those who attend ADS sessions are encouraged to register with the ADS Executive Secretary for $20, students $10. This helps defray the cost of our BYOB reception and earns you a distinctive decoration for your LSA badge.

LUNCHEON: At 12:15 p.m. Saturday, January 4. Speaker and topic to come. Menu: mesclun greens salad, cherry chicken salad sandwich on croissant, kettle chips, macciato chocolate mousse cup. Cost is $40. Students who are members of ADS may attend free. Reservations may be made in advance with ADS Executive Secretary Allan Metcalf at americandialect@mac.edu.

WOTY: The open nominating meeting for Words of the Year 2013 is at 6:15 p.m. Thursday, and the final vote at 5:30 p.m. Friday (see schedule below). Members and friends are invited to participate at both meetings.

Name of the Year: At the start of our WOTY session on Friday, we will also host the American Name Society’s announcement of its vote on Name of the Year 2013.

BYOB Reception: Cosponsored by Duke University Press, publisher of American Speech. After the Friday voting on Words of the Year, you’re invited to our annual Bring-Your-Own-Book reception from 6:45 to 7:45 p.m. Bring your new book or books; we’ll have tables along the walls where you can display them.