The 3rd International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC), “Sharing Worlds of Knowledge,” will be held February 28-March 3, 2013, at the Hawai‘i Imin International Conference Center on the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa campus.
By popular demand, the 3rd ICLDC will be a full day longer than the previous two conferences. The conference program will feature an integrated series of Master Class workshops. An optional Hilo Field Study (on the Big Island of Hawai‘i) to visit Hawaiian language revitalization programs in action will immediately follow the conference (March 4-5).
This year’s conference theme, “Sharing Worlds of Knowledge,” intends to highlight the interdisciplinary nature of language documentation and the need to share methods for documenting the many aspects of human knowledge that language encodes. We aim to build on the strong momentum created by the 1st and 2nd ICLDCs to discuss research and revitalization approaches yielding rich records that can benefit both the field of language documentation and speech communities. We hope you will join us.
Topics
We especially welcome abstracts that address the conference theme of the interdisciplinary nature of language documentation. Language encodes knowledge from many facets of life: kinship, science, taxonomy, material culture, spirituality, music, and others. We encourage presentations on documenting these topics through the lens of endangered languages.
We are also seeking abstracts on the science of documentation and revitalization. Documentation is usually portrayed as a means of collecting language data, and revitalization is generally seen primarily as a kind of applied work directly benefiting communities. However, each of those domains is a genuine area of research, and we welcome presentations that treat documentation and revitalization not merely as activities, but also as domains requiring theorization in their own right.
In addition to the topics above, we warmly welcome abstracts on other subjects in language documentation and conservation, which may include but are not limited to:
- Archiving matters
- Community experiences of revitalization
- Data management
- Ethical issues
- Language planning
- Lexicography and reference grammar design
- Methods of assessing ethnolinguistic vitality
- Orthography design
- Teaching/learning small languages
- Technology in documentation – methods and pitfalls
- Topics in areal language documentation
- Training in documentation methods – beyond the university
- Assessing success in documentation and revitalization strategies
Abstract submission
Abstracts should be submitted in English, but presentations can be in any language. We particularly welcome presentations in languages of the region discussed. Authors may submit no more than one individual and one joint (co-authored) proposal.
Abstracts are due by August 31, 2012, with notification of acceptance by October 1, 2012.
We ask for abstracts of no more than 400 words for online publication so that conference participants will have a good idea of the content of your paper, and a 50-word summary for inclusion in the conference program. All abstracts will be submitted to blind peer review by international experts on the topic.
We will only be accepting proposal submissions for papers or posters. We will not be accepting any proposal submission for panel or colloquia presentations this year. Please note that the Advisory Committee may ask that some abstracts submitted as conference talks be presented as posters instead.
Selected authors will be invited to submit their conference papers to the journal Language Documentation & Conservation for publication.
Proposal review criteria
- Appropriateness of the Topic: Does the paper/poster address the themes of the conference?
- Presentation: Is the abstract well-written? Does it suggest that the paper/poster will be well organized and clearly presented?
- Importance of the Topic: Is this an important topic within the area? Is the paper/poster likely to make an original contribution to
knowledge in the field? Will it stimulate discussion?
Scholarships
To help defray travel expenses to come and present at the conference, scholarships of up to US$1,500 will be awarded to the six best abstracts by (i) students and/or (ii) members of an endangered language community who are actively working to document their heritage language and who are not employed by a college or university. If you are eligible and wish to be considered for a scholarship, please select the appropriate "Yes" button on the proposal submission form.
Presentation formats
Papers will be allowed 20 minutes for presentation with 10 minutes of question time.
Posters will be on display throughout the conference. Poster presentations will run during the lunch breaks.
3rd ICLDC Organizing Committee