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The Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Towson University announces the 9th edition of 鈥淔orging Linguistic Identities." 

The conference will take place April 2-3, 2027.

Conference Topics

The conference seeks to examine language as socially embedded within historical and geo-political contexts. Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:

• national reception of dialect/minority-language literature and verbal culture
• dialects/diglossia and their role in group identity formation
• the standardization of national and/or majority language(s) and its impact on national or regional politics
• multilingualism and its negotiation and practice by the communities of use
• use(s) of indigenous languages under transnational states
• migration
• translation studies
• raciolinguistics
• language policy and planning
• language and the professions (law, healthcare, business, ...)
• translanguaging

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Eva Michelle Wheeler

Associate Professor of Spanish and Black Studies at Providence College.  

Keynote Address:

Listening for Belonging: Raciolinguistic Checkpoints and the Borders of Speakerhood

What does it mean to belong to a language, and who gets to decide? In this keynote, Dr. Eva Michelle Wheeler invites us to consider linguistic belonging not simply as a function of the languages people speak, but as an intersubjective process through which speakers are heard, interpreted, and positioned by others. Drawing on work in raciolinguistics, she examines how language and race operate together as forms of social evidence through which listeners locate speakers within (and sometimes beyond) the perceived borders of linguistic, racial, cultural, and national communities. At the center of the talk is a simple proposition: linguistic belonging is not secured by speaking alone. Speakerhood is produced through encounters in which listeners interpret bodies, voices, languages, histories, and places and decide (provisionally and unevenly) who sounds, looks, or otherwise seems to belong. Dr. Wheeler conceptualizes these encounters as raciolinguistic checkpoints: moments in which speakers are called upon, explicitly or implicitly, to produce evidence of their right to occupy linguistic and cultural space.

Building on Inoue鈥檚 theorization of the listening subject and Bucholtz and Hall鈥檚 tactics of intersubjectivity, Dr. Wheeler considers how speakers are assessed as sufficiently similar, authentically positioned, and socially authorized to belong. Her analysis draws on autoethnographic research on Black Spanish speakerhood and the raciolinguistic negotiation of Cape Verdeanness, alongside emerging research with African and Afro-descendant communities in Portugal. Ultimately, Dr. Wheeler asks us to rethink the relationship between speaking, speakerhood, and belonging as related but not equivalent processes, and to consider how listening subjects continually (re)produce the borders of who is heard as belonging through raciolinguistic encounters embedded in histories of migration, colonialism, racialization, and power.

Proposals

The scope of the conference is not limited by region, language or time period. Proposals involving languages taught by the Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures (ASL, Arabic, French, German, Ancient Greek, Biblical and Modern Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, and Spanish) are especially encouraged. Proposals are welcomed across disciplines, from scholars of languages and literature, education, geography, history, psychology, anthropology, and sociology.

Proposals for panels with multiple speakers are also welcome provided they fit within the 90-minute time frame of each session. Panel proposals should be submitted as a single file containing all three abstracts, each limited to 300 words, along with a list of participants, including their affiliations and email addresses.

Faculty of all ranks, as well as graduate students, are encouraged to participate. 

Registration

Fees and Deadlines

• Regular cost 鈥� $100 by 3/3 and then $125 after that
• Graduate 鈥� $40 by 3/3 and then $60 after that
• Deadline for submissions is December 1, 2026

Stay tuned for registration link.

Hotel Information

We have arranged two small room blocks at local hotels conveniently located near Towson University and downtown Towson. Book early as the conference weekend is also expected to be a busy sports weekend. Space is limited and the room blocks will close according to the dates listed below. Room availability cannot be guaranteed after these dates.

Use the links below to reserve or call the hotel and mention the 鈥淔orging Linguistic Identities Conference鈥� for the group rate.

Sheraton Baltimore North Hotel

903 Dulaney Valley Road, Towson, Maryland, USA, 21204 Tel: +1 410-321-7400
Rate: TBD
Amenities: Free Local Shuttle (must request in advance);
On-site paid parking; Free Wifi
Reservation Dates: Will be announced at a later time.
Last Day to Book: Will be announced at a later time.

• Reserve a room at the Sheraton

Hampton Inn Towson

21 West Susquehanna Avenue
Towson, MD 21204
667-275-7100
Rate: TBD
Amenities: Walking distance to Towson University; Hot breakfast included; Free Wifi
Reservation Dates: Will be announced at a later time.
Last Day to Book: Will be announced at a later time.

• Reserve at the Hampton Inn