We are still finalizing some key aspects of the transition from Calgary to Toronto. We anticipate will be ready to accept your abstract proposals in the next few weeks. However, because the Call for Papers has often gone out in late October, we wanted to make sure you knew of the conference dates, location, plenary speakers, and themes.

We are very excited to welcome the following plenary speakers at this year’s conference:

·         Thomas Ricento (University of Calgary)

·         Marnie Holborow (Dublin City University)

·         Nelson Flores (University of Pennsylvania)

You can find full bios for the speakers here.

With respect to paper and colloquia proposals:

We continue with this conference’s tradition of welcoming papers and colloquia that approach language policy from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives, and in a variety of contexts, from the local/institutional to the national/global.

Abstracts of up to 300 words are welcome that address topics such as (but not limited to):

·         Official & non-official language policies

·         Language-in-education policies

·         Language attrition, language revitalization, and language policies

·         Heritage language policies

·         Language policy and political economy

·         Language policy, globalization, and superdiversity

·         Language policy and the workplace

·         Language policy and lingua franca

·         Language policy and Indigeneity

·         Language policies and transnational communities

·         Language policy, signed languages, and Deaf studies

·         Language policy and anti-racism/anti-oppression

·         Language policy and political theory

·         National identities and language policy

In addition to these general themes, we have identified a specific focus for the 2017 conference. Summer 2017 marks two important anniversaries in Canadian language education policy:

·         In June 1977, the province of Ontario initiated its Heritage Languages Program

·         In August 1977, the province of Quebec passed Bill 101: The Charter of the French Language

These were among the first major language education policies implemented in Canada after the federal government’s activity around the Official Languages Act of 1969 and the Official Multiculturalism Act of 1971. Given this important milestone, we invite papers that explore either of these two policies specifically, their relationship to federal and/or other language-policy activity in Canada, as well as the challenges associated with historiographical study of language policy/language education policy. We especially encourage authors to propose 90-minute colloquia on the topic.

The deadline for abstract submissions is Tuesday, February 28, 2017. We will update you as soon as the ConfTool site is ready to go so you can upload your abstracts.

Abstracts will be reviewed anonymously by at least two experts in the field. Final decisions will be sent to authors by April 15, 2017.

Each paper presentation should be 30 minutes, including discussion time. Colloquia can be for 100 minutes (3 papers) and 180 minutes (up to 6 papers). Papers should be presented in English. You can submit a maximum of two contributions, one as first/sole author and one as second author or discussant.

For more information, please visit our website at https://wordpress.oise.utoronto.ca/lpp2017 or contact us by e-mail: OISE.LPP@utoronto.ca. You will see on the website that we are still working on finalizing certain details about this year’s conference; we will update you on our progress as soon as possible.