LAVIS V and SECOL 91

SECOL Website

The Southeastern Conference on Linguistics invites abstract submissions for papers for the 91st meeting, which will be held concurrently with Language Variation in the South V (LAVIS V: the LAVIS conference is only held every 10 years), hosted by the University of Georgia in Athens, GA, April 4-7, 2024. Papers in all areas of language and linguistics are welcome, including papers and panels on the teaching of linguistics, but special consideration will be given to proposals related to the conference theme, "The Changing South."

"The Changing South" is in part a story of demographic and economic boom, but many other compelling narratives exist as well, including the cultural and demographic transformations brought by immigrants from all over the world. In recent census reports, states like Georgia had the fastest growing percentage Hispanic populations in the US. While Hispanic migrants are clearly the most visible group of recent newcomers to the South, other groups have transformed the region over the past thirty years, including large Asian populations (Chinese, Vietnamese, Hmong, Indian, Pakistani, etc.), Middle Easterners (Lebanese, Iraqi, Egyptian, Saudi, Yemeni, etc.) and Southern and Eastern Europeans (Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, etc.). African Americans, too, have been moving back to the South from other areas of the country.

Thus, "The Changing South" is comprised of increasing demographic and linguistic diversity, but as important are the changes to the traditional populations and ways of life. LAVIS V and SECOL 91 together will be the most comprehensive conference documenting language in this dynamic landscape, following the once-per-decade pattern of the LAVIS meetings.

Abstracts for 20-minute papers should not exceed 400 words, excluding title and references. Authors may submit up to two abstracts (across both conferences), one individual and one joint. Abstracts will be accepted electronically through Oxford Abstracts between September 1 and October 31, 2023, at https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/6722/submitter. Abstracts will be evaluated together (no separate evaluation for LAVIS V and SECOL 91).

Please direct all inquiries by email to lavis5@uga.edu.