Location: Lucy Ellis Lounge at the Foreign Languages Building, #1080 FLB

SoSy ’23: “Diversity, Difference, and Dialects”, 2-3 March, 2023—VIEW FLYER

Our 5th annual Sociolinguistics Symposium at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is the first 2-day rendition of our commitment to providing a sociolinguistics-focused, graduate-student run space for professional and up-and-coming linguists.

Our theme for the year 2023 Diversity, Difference, and Dialects is aimed at investigating and understanding the concepts of diversity, difference, and dialects in various contexts. This includes (but is not limited to), for example, examining the distinction between diversity and distinction—as in the postcolonial writings of Bhabha—and where language sits within it. This session invites abstracts that focus more broadly on various semiotic practices as well —including but not limited to codeswitching, stance-taking, lexical choice, script choice, and phonetic variation—of meaning-making in different modalities. We especially encourage research that explores the identity processes uncovered, recovered, encouraged, or discouraged at the loci of linguistic marginalization through a variety of analytical/theoretical sociolinguistic approaches.

To register for free (for in-person attendance – there is not a virtual component), please visit: https://publish.illinois.edu/sociolinguisticssymposium/registration/ 

Our 2023 plenary speakers are:

1. Rakesh Bhatt, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Talk title: Translanguaging and other parricidal régimes—View abstract
2. Lydia Catedral, City University of Hong Kong. Talk title: Differences that make a difference: Language, space-time, and materiality in sociolinguistic advocacy—View abstract
3. Jennifer Cramer, University of Kentucky. Talk title: Appalachian English as a linguistic frame of reference, not a fact—View abstract
4. Alexandra Johnston, Georgetown University. Talk title: A matter of survival: Supporting diversity, difference & dialects in career pathways for linguists—Abstract_Johnston
   
5. Shalini Shankar, Northwestern University *Braj and Yamuna Kachru Distinguished Lecture in the Linguistic Sciences. Talk title: Language Materialities of Caste and Race in Global South Asia—View abstract

We will also welcome the following special feature speakers:

1. Jae DiBello Takeuchi, Clemson University. Talk title: Linguistic microaggression: Native speaker bias and monolingual bias in Japanese-English code-switching—View abstract
2. Sarah Hopkyns, Zayed University. Talk title: Legitimizing linguistic hybridity and third spaces in English-medium higher education: A spotlight on the United Arab Emirates—View abstract

For questions concerning SoSy, please contact: sosy-linguistics@illinois.edu

Follow us at: Sociolinguistics Symposium UIUC | Facebook and (@SoSyUIUC) / Twitter

SoSy is in the Daily Illini news (and on the UIUC Linguistics webpage)! Thanks Daily Illini for sharing our story!

———

SoSy ’23 Co-Chairs:

Sarah Clark, sarahc4@illinois.edu

Wafa Al-Alawi, wsa2@illinois.edu