CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT: Ecology AND Language. The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio 43210. Friday 13 January – Saturday 14 January, 2012.

As the 9th Annual Martin Luther King Day Linguistics Symposium, the
Department of Linguistics of The Ohio State University is pleased to
announce a conference on “Ecology AND Language”, where the emphasis on the
conjunction of the two notions is intentional. The symposium will explore
various types of mutual enrichment between the study of language and the
study of ecology, understood in its broadest sense as referring to
interactions between organisms, including language-using humans, and their
environment as it is shaped by social, political, and natural factors.

There will be invited presentations by Lenore Grenoble of the University
of Chicago, on ecology of language use and language endangerment in the
circumpolar regions, and by Salikoko Mufwene of the University of Chicago,
on an ecological approach to language development and change. In addition,
there will be a presentation by John Wenzel, of the Center for
Biodiversity and Ecosystems of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, on
biological and linguistic “extinction science”, a panel featuring Amanda
Miller, Jane Mitsch, and Deborah Morton (all of The Ohio State University)
on the ecology of literacy in Africa, and talks on several ecologically
inspired linguistics projects under way at The Ohio State University
involving researchers in the Department of Linguistics, the Department of
Greek and Latin, and the School of Environment and Natural Resources.

There is room on the program for more papers, so we invite submission of
abstracts for presentations of 20 minutes (with 10 additional minutes for
questions and discussion) on any topic relating to the symposium theme
investigating the intersection of ecology and language.

Please send one-page 500-word (maximum) abstracts (with references and key
data placed on a second page if needed) abstracts electronically as a pdf
file to joseph.1 (arrova) osu (punt) edu.

The deadline for receipt of your abstract is MONDAY NOVEMBER 28, 2011. Please
include your name, affiliation, and contact information along with the
abstract. We will send notifications about acceptances by DECEMBER 5.

For information on the MLK Day Linguistics Symposia, please visit:
http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~bjoseph/mlk/MLKhistory.html (and links
therefrom).