Third call for papers

57th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea
21-24 August 2024
University of Helsinki

The Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE) and the University of Helsinki are pleased to announce the 57th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE 2024), to be held in Helsinki, 21-24 August 2024.

SLE meetings provide a forum for high-quality linguistic research from all (sub)domains of linguistics. The upcoming edition of the SLE meeting will also host a round table of experts to discuss topics of special linguistic interest.

The deadline for all abstracts is 15 January 2024. Notification of acceptance/rejection will be given by 31 March 2024.

Call for Papers

Plenary Speakers

  • Eva Schultze-Berndt  (University of Manchester) Presidential address
  • Brigitte Pakendorf (DRCE, CNRS)
  • Sandra Auderset (MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology), winner of the Best Postdoc paper at SLE 2023
  • Víctor Royo Viñuales (Université de Liège – Université catholique de Louvain), winner of the Best PhD paper at SLE 2023.

Round Table “Decolonization and linguistics – opportunities and challenges”

panelists:

  • Maria Mazzoli (University of Groningen)
  • Pius Akumbu (LLACAN)
  • Hanna-Máret Outakoski (Umeå University)

moderator Eeva Sippola (University of Helsinki)

The Round Table seeks ways to advance our field in the global era, inspired by decolonial approaches and recognizing the historical base of linguistics as a modern science as well as historical and current inequalities of power within Europe and beyond. Pius Akumbu, Maria Mazzoli and Hanna-Máret Outakoski  will discuss different opportunities and challenges related to decolonization and different forms of decolonial research, how knowledge production in linguistics is localized in different contexts and how it interacts with other knowledge systems and their views on language. Specific questions asked are: What is the role of decolonization for linguistic research? How do we advance our field by adding a decolonial perspective?

We invite SLE Conference Participants to join the Round Table discussion by sending questions or comments to https://padlet.com/SLE2024/round_table_decolonization_and_linguistics before or during the Round Table.


SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: WORKSHOP PAPERS, GENERAL SESSION PAPERS, AND POSTERS

The deadline for general session, poster, and workshop abstracts is 15 January 2024.

We also invite you to submit your abstract for SLE 2024 Special Outreach Session: Communicating linguistics research: results and prospects. Deadline for submissions is 26 February. For details, click here. Extended deadline: 10 March

Notification of acceptance will be given by 31 March 2024.

The list of workshops accepted for SLE 2024 can be found in the tab List of Workshops.

Abstracts should clearly state the research questions, approach, method, data and (expected) results. They should not contain the names of the presenters, nor their affiliations or addresses, or any other information that could reveal their authorship. They should not exceed 500 words (including examples, excluding references). Abstracts should have the same title as the entry submitted via EasyChair. Some guidelines about how to write a good abstract can be found under the tab “How to write a good abstract”.

Presentations will last 20 minutes, allowing 5 min. for discussion and 5 min. for speaker and room changes.

Abstracts are submitted via EasyChair within the SLE Members’ Area: https://societaslinguistica.eu/members/login/ Please keep in mind that SLE is a members’ association run by and for members. Hence, the person submitting an abstract has to be an SLE member. Please notice that SLE 2024 is on-site conference. For the convenience of SLE members, the plenary sessions will be streamed. The general session talks will take place on-site. The workshop convenors may opt for a self-supported hybrid format (which means they will themselves be responsible for arranging and running the remote connections).

SUBMITTING MULTIPLE PAPERS. In order to guarantee diversity, one person may be the first author of only one submission of any kind (workshop paper, general session paper, poster, or workshop proposal); nobody is allowed to present multiple papers or co-present more than two papers at an SLE conference (including workshops). You can co-author more than two papers but you cannot figure among the co-presenters at the conference (i.e. if you co-author more than two papers, you will have to play a background role).


Presenting a poster

The SLE 2024 meeting will have one or two poster sessions for both senior and junior researchers. In order to foster interaction, all other sessions will be suspended during the poster session. Posters will be displayed in a gathering area and may remain available during the rest of the conference. The maximum size of the poster is usually 1.20 m (vertical) x 1 m (horizontal). For more information about how to make a good poster, click here.


Reviewing procedure

Abstracts will be reviewed anonymously by three referees. Workshop abstracts receive two evaluations by Programme Committee members and one by the workshop convenors. Abstracts submitted to the general session and to the poster session will be evaluated by three members of the Programme Committee. The threshold for acceptance is the same for general session papers, posters and workshop papers.


Prize for the best presentation and the best poster

At SLE conferences there are prizes for the following categories (see Award winners 2023):

  • best oral presentation by a PhD student,
  • best oral presentation by a postdoc, and
  • best poster.

Applicants can mark their option for each of the award categories in Easychair upon abstract submission.

Rules

PhD students should not have completed their PhD before the conference. Postdocs should have completed their PhD not earlier than three years before the year of the conference (for example 2021 for the SLE 2024 conference). All posters will be eligible for the best poster prize.

A shortlisted paper may be co-authored. Co-authored papers in categories i) and ii) above should be presented at the conference by the nominee, who will also have to be the first author of the paper.

Prizes

The first prize in each of the three categories is 500 Euros. The winners of the first prizes in the PhD and Postdoc categories are also awarded a 20+5 mins. plenary talk at SLE 2025 (Bordeaux). The 2nd and 3rd prizes will receive a three-year SLE membership.


Important dates

  • 20 November 2023: workshop proposals submission deadline
  • 15 December 2023: notification of workshop acceptance
  • 15 January 2024: deadline for submission of all abstracts
  • 31 March 2024: notification of paper acceptance
  • 1 April 2024: early bird registration starts
  • 1 May 2024: full fee registration starts
  • 31 May 2024: closing registration date for participants with a paper
  • 31 July 2024: closing registration date for participants without a paper, and for co-authors of papers where at least one author has already registered.

Please note that papers for which none of the authors has registered by 31 May will not be scheduled. The schedule will be published online in June after the registration deadline. The schedule will then be modified only in the event of cancellations.


Registration

Registration will open on 1 April 2024. SLE meetings are member-only conferences. That is, all participants will have to be or become members of the Societas Linguistica Europaea to be able to register.


Social programme

There will be a welcome reception on Wednesday evening (included in the registration fee), a walking tour in Helsinki’s historical city centre combined with a reception in the City Hall on Thursday (included in the registration fee) and a conference dinner and party on Friday evening (not included in the conference fee). On Saturday afternoon and on Sunday, there will be a number of activities.