Call for Abstracts
NARNiHS 2027
North American Research Network in Historical Sociolinguistics
Ninth Annual Meeting
100% in-person
Co-Located with the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) Annual Meeting
San Francisco, California, USA
6-9 January 2027
This event offers an opportunity for scholars from all over the world to gather and share leading research in historical sociolinguistic methods of linguistic inquiry; and we invite our fellow historical sociolinguists and scholars in related fields from our global scholarly community to join us in San Francisco for our 9th Annual Meeting.
————— Call for Abstracts —————
Abstract submission online:
https://easyabs.linguistlist.org/submit/NARNiHS_2027/
Deadline: Monday, 24 August 2026, 11:59 PM US Eastern Time.
Late abstracts will not be considered.
The North American Research Network in Historical Sociolinguistics (NARNiHS) is accepting abstracts for its 9th Annual Meeting. As a Sister Society of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), NARNiHS will hold its Annual Meeting sessions at the LSA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Wednesday-Saturday, 6-9 January 2027. The 9th edition of this inclusive NARNiHS event seeks to provide a collaborative environment where presenters bring fully developed work for presentation and enrichment. We see the NARNiHS Annual Meeting as a place for showcasing excellent projects in historical sociolinguistics, seeking feedback from peers, and engaging in productive development of the field’s enduring questions.
NARNiHS welcomes papers in all areas of historical sociolinguistics, which is understood as the application and/or development of sociolinguistic theories, methods, and models for the study of historical language variation and change over time, or more broadly, the study of the interaction of language and society in historical periods and from historical perspectives. Thus, a wide range of linguistic areas, subdisciplines, methodologies, and adjacent disciplines easily find their place within historical sociolinguistics, and we encourage submission of abstracts that reflect this broad scope.
Abstracts will be accepted for both 20-minute papers and posters. Accepted papers will be organized into thematic sessions that will be scheduled throughout the 4 days of the LSA conference; accepted posters will be scheduled together in the LSA poster gallery. Please note that, at NARNiHS events, poster presentations are an integral and equal part of the intellectual exchange (not second-tier presentations). Abstracts will be assigned a paper or a poster presentation based on determinations in the review process about the most effective format for the submission. However, if you prefer that your submission be considered primarily for poster presentation, please specify this in your abstract.
Successful abstracts will demonstrate thorough grounding in historical sociolinguistics, scientific rigor in the formulation of research questions, and promise for rich discussion of ideas. Successful abstracts will be explicit about which theoretical frameworks, methodological protocols, and analytical strategies are being applied or critiqued. Data sources and examples should be sufficiently presented, so as to allow reviewers a full understanding of the scope and claims of the research. Please note that the connection of your research to the field of historical sociolinguistics should be explicitly outlined in your abstract. Failure to adhere to these criteria will likely result in rejection of the abstract.
Abstract Format Guidelines:
● Abstracts must be submitted in PDF format.
● Abstracts must fit on one 8.5×11-inch or A4 page, with margins no smaller than 1 inch (2.54 cm) and a font style and size no smaller than Times New Roman 12 point. You are encouraged to use the entire page to provide a full and robust description of the research. All additional supporting content (visualizations, trees, tables, figures, captions, examples, and references) must fit on a single (1) additional page. No exceptions to these requirements are allowed; abstracts longer than one page or with more than one additional page of supporting content will be rejected without review.
● Specify if you prefer your submission be considered primarily for a poster presentation.
● Anonymize your abstract. We realize that sometimes complete anonymity is not attainable, but there is a difference between the nature of the research creating an inability to anonymize and careless non-anonymizing (in citations, references, file names, etc.). Be sure to also anonymize your PDF file (you may do so in Adobe Acrobat Reader by clicking on “File”, then “Properties”, removing your name if it appears in the “Author” line of the “Description” tab, and re-saving the file before submission). Do not use your name as the file name when saving your PDF (e.g. Smith_Abstract.pdf); file names may not be automatically anonymized by the EasyAbs system. Rather, use non-identifying information in your file name (e.g. HistSoc4Lyfe.pdf). Your name should only appear in the online form accompanying your abstract submission. Abstracts that are not sufficiently anonymized wherever possible will be rejected without review.
General Requirements:
● Abstracts must be submitted electronically, using the following link: https://easyabs.linguistlist.org/submit/NARNiHS_2027/ .
● Authors may submit a maximum of two abstracts: one single-author abstract and one co-authored abstract.
● Authors may not submit identical abstracts for presentation in NARNiHS sessions and at the LSA Annual Meeting or another LSA Sister Society meeting (ADS, ANS, NAHoLS, SCiL, SPCL, or SSILA).
● Specify in the abstract if you prefer that your submission be considered primarily for a poster presentation.
● After submission, no changes of author, title, or wording of the abstract may occur. If your abstract is accepted, adjustment of typographical errors is permitted before a final version of the abstract is printed in the conference booklet.
● Papers and posters must be delivered as projected in the abstract or represent bona fide developments of the same research.
● Authors are expected to attend the conference in-person and present their own papers and posters. This will not be a hybrid event.
Contact us at NARNiHistSoc@gmail.com with any questions.