Call For Papers

 

SIGN CAFÉ 2 CONFERENCE

School of Foreign Language and Literature
Ex Distretto Militare,
Via Dottor Solarino, 87,
97100 Ragusa, Italy 

 

 

Call for Sign Café 2

With Covid-19 conditions improving after well over a year, the University of Catania, the Department of Humanities, the School of Foreign Language and Literature in Ragusa and the Language and Communication Across Modalities Lab (LaCAM) of the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC) of the CNR are now in a position to proudly hold the second edition of the Workshop on Cognitive and Functional Approaches to Sign Language Linguistics.

Sign Café 2 will take place on October 13-15, 2022, at the University of Catania, in Ragusa. The conference will be hosted in a blended format (on-line and in-person) but presenters should give their talk in person.

This workshop has been set up by Adam Schembri of the University of Birmingham as a regular forum to discuss approaches toward sign language linguistics in the cognitive and functional linguistics tradition. These approaches frame language as a type of social action in relation to other cognitive systems. A wide range of theoretical approaches are included in this definition: they all have in common the importance they ascribe to the role of communication and cognition in linguistic theory and in descriptions of language structure. 

 

Invited speakers will be:

• Gabrielle Hodge (Australian National University, Australia)

• Marie-Anne Sallandre and Brigitte Garcia (Université Paris 8, CNRS, France)

• Erin Wilkinson (University of New Mexico, USA)

• Virginia Volterra (ISTC, CNR, Italy)

 

We have considered previously accepted submissions (or updated versions) without any further refereeing. Having received 43 confirmations, we will open a new but restricted call for further contributions (around 25). 

 

Conference Language

The official languages of the conference will be English and International Sign (IS), with Italian Sign Language (LIS) as additional language. 

Abstract submission

We plan to have signed/spoken presentations (20 minutes and 10 minutes discussion) as well as two poster sessions. As there will only be a single stream of signed/spoken presentations, it is likely that the majority of presentations will be posters. Authors of poster presentations will give a short 3- minutes presentation. 

Abstracts should be anonymized (with no author names in the text). The anonymous abstract should include the title and indicate whether it is intended for poster or signed/spoken presentation. Abstracts should be no longer than 500 words (including tables, examples and references), in 12-point font, single line spacing and 2.5 cm margins. 

Abstracts should be submitted in pdf format through the Sign CAFÉ 2 EasyChair website.

Video submission in IS is also allowed (maximum length of 5 minutes). Abstracts should be anonymised by being signed by someone different from the author(s). To send a signed abstract, please follow these instructions: build the video using your phone/pc/camera by placing your phone horizontally in front of the person who will sign or try to obtain a horizontal rectangle format; the maximum length of the video should be 5 minutes, but shorter messages are accepted. Upload your abstract to a YouTube channel (private mode, visible only to those who have the link) and past the link in a PDF that should include the title, indicate whether it is intended for poster or Signed presentation, and the references. Finally, upload the PDF to Sign Café 2 EasyChair website. 

Please contact the Sign Café 2 organizers if you have any questions about the submissions of video abstracts.

Participants will be allowed to present at most one talk (as a single or first author) and one poster. However, there is no restriction on the number of co-authored papers.

Reviewing procedure

All abstracts will be subject to double-blind peer review by an international scientific committee.

The scientific committee reserves the right to reject abstracts and to accept as a poster abstract submitted as oral.

Important dates

• Deadline for abstract submission: May 16th, 2022

• Notification of acceptance/rejection: May 30th, 2022

• Registration will open on June 13th, 2022

Registration fees 

 

Conference e-mail and website:

• signcafe2.unict@gmail.com

• http://www.sdslingue.unict.it/signcafetwo

Local Organizing committee: