Conference on Mediterranean and European Linguistic Anthropology 2020 The American University of Greece, Athens

The COMELA 2020 invites academics in the fields of Linguistics, Anthropology, Linguistic and Cultural Anthropology, and Ethnology, pertinent to The Mediterranean and Europe, to discuss work, and engage in scholarly collaborations, thus strengthening global academic networks in the field.
Location
American College of Greece
Athens, Greece
Partners
– Taylor and Francis Global Publishers (Official Publishing Partner)
– 120 major academic institutions globally
– Scientific Committee of over 120 academics
Publications
– Journal Special Issues, and Monographs, from papers submitted that meet publication requirements. Papers selected will be published with Top-Tier journals. Here, ample assistance will be provided to revise manuscripts.
– All COMELA Conference proceedings will be SCOPUS published.
Dates
– Abstract and poster proposal submission – December 1, 2019 – April 1, 2020
– Notification of acceptance – No later than April 20, 2020
Registration
– Early bird – October 30, 2019 – January 21, 2020
– Normal bird – January 21, 2020 – April 25, 2020
Presenters must register by April 25, 2020, to guarantee a place in the program. Registration will remain open after this, but conference organizers cannot guarantee placement in the conference.
– Late bird – April 25, 2020 – September 5, 2020 (Conference end)
Conference dates
Wednesday September 2, 2020 – Saturday September 5, 2020
Final day comprises optional Anthropological excursion (separate cost)
Abstract submissions
The Second and Final Call for Abstracts opens on December 1, 2019, at https://comela2020.acg.edu, which contains all information
Anthropological Excursion
Several options
Attica, Greece
Theme
Bounded Languages … Unbounded
Politics of identity are central to language change. Here, linguistic boundaries rise and fall, motivating the ephemeral characteristics of language communities. The Mediterranean and European region is one replete with histories, with power struggles, uniquely demarcating nation, ethnicity, and community. For this, cultural and political identities, language ideologies, as well as the languages themselves, have sought boundedness, dynamics of which have indeed sought change over eons, through demographic movements, through geopolitics, through technological innovation. In a current era of technological advancement, transnational fluidity, intellectual power, capitalism, and new sexualities, then, we question, once again, the boundedness of language and identity, and ways in which to unbound languages and ideologies. More than before, we now increasingly pursue anthropological toil, so to innovate ways to locate these ideologies and their fluid boundaries, actively. We now need to increasingly unbind these languages, and their ideologies, so to arrive at progressive realizations, and to rectify, or at least see and move past, the segregations of old.
The COMELA 2020 theme, “Bounded languages… Unbounded”, encapsulates the ongoing struggle throughout Mediterranean and European regions. As the continuous tension between demarcation, and the concurrent legitimization, of languages, language ideologies, and language identities, enters an era where new modes of interactivity require language communities to take on roles super-ordinate to the past, flexible citizenship now operates within, and not only across, language communities, to unbind languages, and to create new boundaries, unlike those ever seen throughout history.
The COMELA 2020 invites work which addresses the shifting boundedness of Language Communities of the Mediterranean and Europe. Papers and posters should acknowledge and describe processes of language shape, change, and ideology, pertinent to social, cultural, political histories, and futures of Mediterranean and European regions, and by those working in Mediterranean and European regions.
Presentation lengths
Colloquia – 1.5 hours with 3-5 contributors (Parts A and B are possible, thus 6-10 contributors)
General paper sessions – Approx. 20-25 minutes each, including 5 mins for questions/responses
Posters – to be displayed at designated times throughout the COMELA 2020
Submission Guidelines (via the online submission website, or by email (see below))
General session papers
– 18-word maximum title
– 400-word maximum abstract, including references
Colloquia
– Submission of only the main abstract for colloquium required
– Abstract must contain the colloquium main description, and a summary of each individual paper within the colloquium
Evaluation of proposals
– All abstracts for general sessions will be double blind reviewed.
– Main parent abstracts for colloquia will be double blind reviewed. All abstracts for individual presentations within each colloquia will not be peer reviewed, but are expected to be at a standard commensurate to the colloquium parent abstract.
Review of criteria are as follows:
– Appropriateness and significance to COMELA themes
– Originality/significance/impact of the research
– Clarity/coherence of research concerns
– Theoretical and analytical framework(s)
– Description of research, data collection, findings/conclusions, rhetoric, and exegesis as a whole
– For colloquia, importance/significance of the overarching topic and/or framework(s) addressed, and its coherence of and with individual presentations.
For more information, please contact:
Chair
Professor Helena Maragou
Dean, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences
The American College of Greece
Communications Liaison, COMELA 2020
Ms. Anastasia Tsantis
comela@acg.edu
https://comela2020.acg.edu