UPDATED July 20, 2020.

From Thursday, January 7 through Sunday, January 10, 2021, the American Dialect Society will hold its annual meeting in conjunction with the Linguistic Society of America in San Francisco, California, at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis.

Monday, August 2, is the deadline for poster and 20-minute paper proposals. 

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

Submissions are limited to two per author: one paper and one poster, one of which must be co-authored.

Abstracts of no more than 500 words as a PDF will be submitted, reviewed, and processed for ADS2021 via the EasyChair system using the following website: 

Three important notes about submitting through EasyChair, especially if you’ve never done it before: (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 August 1, 2020, because the system will not accept late submissions; and (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.

We encourage you to propose a presentation for the poster session, which will again be in conjunction with one of the LSA poster sessions. If you would like to present a poster, 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. You may become a member here.

Do not send the same proposal to both ADS and LSA, and do not submit proposals based on research that has been previously presented elsewhere. 

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. 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 Kate 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 7: Executive Council and annual business meeting in afternoon. Program session in late afternoon, followed by Word of the Year nominations.
• Friday, January 8: Program sessions in early morning and all afternoon. Poster session in late morning. Words of the Year vote in early evening.
• Saturday, January 9: Program sessions in morning and afternoon; Annual Luncheon in between. Luncheon speaker: ADS President, Michael Adams, Indiana University, on a subject to be announced.
• Sunday, January 10: 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 at the meeting to students whose papers or posters have been chosen for the program. Please email nominations, along with a letter of support, to Kathryn Remlinger at remlingk@gvsu.edu. Nominations should be from supervising faculty.

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.

WOTY: As we have done since 1999, we will choose candidates for Word of the Year on Thursday and vote for our WOTY the next day. Nominations for Words of the Year can be submitted all year long to woty@americandialect.org. 

Meeting and hotel registration: ADS members are eligible to reserve rooms and register for the meeting at LSA member rates. ADS members need to register for both ADS and LSA through the LSA website. For details see the website www.lsadc.org.

Future LSA-ADS meetings: 2022, Washington, DC, Washington Hilton, 6-9 January; 2023 Denver, CO, Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center, 5-8 January; 2024 New York, NY, Sheraton New York Times Square, 4-7 January.