The 8th International Conference on Language Documentation & Conservation (ICLDC)
March 2-5, 2023
Conference Theme: Centering Justice in Language Work
Attention to aspects of justice as a social responsibility has been growing in many fields in recent years. Our field should be no exception: the reasons for language shift and loss worldwide are arguably tied to historical and contemporary injustices and inequality. Furthermore, issues of justice affecting speakers and language communities are not just linguistic: a growing body of research shows that linguistic justice intersects with justice in the environmental, health, legal, political, economic, and educational realms.
While the inherently sociopolitical nature of language work is evident to many practitioners, justice goals are often considered by-products that are secondary in importance to the more traditional scholastic aims of documentary linguistics. Therefore, we believe it is time for the field of language documentation and conservation to develop a framework that establishes justice as both the starting point and end goal of our work. How might such an approach reframe the traditional pursuits of documentation? Could it potentially invert the field’s current motivations and methodologies, asserting language justice as the ultimate goal, and traditional academic pursuits as an expected outcome of such work?
Our field has not yet held an international conversation on achieving justice within language documentation and conservation, what role language workers play in achieving justice in intersecting realms, and how justice can critically inform, and reform, best practices in language documentation and conservation work. We propose to make the ICLDC8 a venue for this critical and timely conversation. Importantly, we see ICLDC8 as an excellent opportunity for practitioners to build relationships and develop the social infrastructure necessary for working toward a justice-driven model of language work.
The conference program will feature Keynote presentations, Talk Story and Workshop sessions, papers, and posters. The He ʻŌlelo Ola Hilo Field Study, showcasing Hawaiian language K-20 immersion programs, will be integrated into the conference schedule.
Plenary Speakers
Opening Plenary Speaker: Noenoe K. Silva (University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa)
Closing Plenary Speakers: Michal Temkin Martinez & Selda Delsooz (Boise State University)
Call for Proposals
- August 1, 2022: Proposals for Workshops and Talk Story Sessions deadline
- October 2, 2022: Proposal deadline for general papers and posters
For more information on the conference or to register, visit our conference website