LISO Conferences & Symposia

Current/Upcoming Conferences & Symposia:

The Language, Interaction, and Social Organization (LISO) Graduate Student Organization at UCSB and the Center for Language, Interaction, and Culture (CLIC) Graduate Student Association at UCLA and are pleased to host:

The 27th Annual Conference on Language, Interaction and Social Organization

May 23-24, 2025

University of California, Santa Barbara

Theme:

Research and (Re)action

Plenary speakers

Dr. Lynnette Arnold – University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Dr. Shannon Ward – University of British Columbia, Okanagan

Dr. Kevin Whitehead – University of California, Santa Barbara

Conference Program

(...followed by a symposium on "Representing Language and Its Users" on May 25, 2025!)

The LISO conference promotes interdisciplinary research and discussion in the analysis of naturally occurring human interaction. Papers will be presented by national and international scholars on a variety of topics in the study of language, interaction, and culture.

This year, the conference theme is “Research and (Re)action.” This theme invites research that is engaged with the sociopolitical implications of language including: language and activism, language and resistance, language and social justice, and community-engaged approaches to research. We have put this theme forward in the hopes of fostering conversations about the role of language, interaction, and culture in the contemporary global sociopolitical climate.

Abstracts for presentations are welcome from all students, both graduate and undergraduate. Presentations that include video and/or audio recordings of naturalistic interaction are encouraged. Submissions within the scope of the conference theme are welcomed; however, innovative work on all aspects of language and interaction will be considered.

  • If you are interested in attending, please register here.*
*Registration is free for virtual attendees and $5 for in-person attendees. The deadline for registration is May 15th for those planning to attend the conference in-person and receive meals. You can register after this date, but we may not have food for you.

Past Conference in 2023:

The Language, Interaction, and Social Organization GSO at UCSB (LISO) and the Center for Language, Interaction, and Culture GSA at UCLA (CLIC) are pleased to host:

The 26th Annual Conference on Language, Interaction, and Social Organization

May 19-20, 2023

University of California, Santa Barbara

Theme:

"Continuing and Restarting"

 

Plenary Speakers:

Anne Haas Dyson (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

Judith Green (University of California, Santa Barbara) More information here.

Marjorie Harness Goodwin (University of California, Los Angeles) More information here.

Waverly Duck (University of California, Santa Barbara) More information here.

Workshops By:

Diana Fernandez Romero (University Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid) More information here.

Judith Green (University of California, Santa Barbara) More information here.

Lal Zimman (University of California, Santa Barbara) More information here.

Waverly Duck (University of California, Santa Barbara) More information here

 

Full schedule of the conference here.

 

The LISO conference promotes interdisciplinary research and discussion in the analysis of naturally occurring human interaction. Papers will be presented by national and international scholars on a variety of topics in the study of language, interaction, and culture.

This year's conference theme is "Continuing and Restarting", which is the title of a Conversation analysis paper (Local 1992), which studies how speakers deploy prosody to indicate if they are continuing with prior utterances or simply restarting. By borrowing this title, we hope to connect to one major approach to studies of language and social interaction - conversation analysis. This theme also echos the fact that we are "continuing and restarting" the LISO conference that has been paused since 2019, and that students and faculty are "continuing and restarting" their study and research due to Covid as well.

Registration

Please use the forms below to be able to participate in the conference by May 5th. This conference will be held free to all attendees this year in honor of the revival of the conference after 4 years; however, registration is required.

Registration link for attending the conference:
 
Registration link for being a volunteer working on the conference day:
 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

 

We seek proposals for 20-minute paper presentations which address the conference theme as they relate to any of the following topics (see list below). While submissions based on the conference theme will be particularly welcome, innovative work on all aspects of language and interaction will be considered.

Presentations related to the conference theme may include but are not limited to:

  • Cross-disciplinary perspectives
  • Ethics and Research
  • Language acquisition
  • Language and class, (dis)ability, race/ethnicity. gender/sexuality and age
  • Language and Education
  • Language and media
  • Language policy and practice
  • Meta-commentary on disciplinary frameworks
  • Multilingualism and cross-/intercultural communication
  • Non-Dominant epistemologies
  • Political discourse, discussions of power
  • Politically-engaged scholarship

Although submissions based on the conference theme will be particularly welcome, innovative works on all aspects of language and interaction will be considered.

We welcome abstracts from undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty working in the areas of Anthropology, Applied Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Communication, Digital Humanities, Education, Ethnic Studies, Feminist Studies, Internet Studies, Literacy Studies, Linguistics, Psychology, and Sociology.

 Please send your abstract (up to 300 words) by March 1st, 2023, 23:59 PST, to the LISO Coordinating Committee at lisoconference@gmail.com. Late submissions will not be accepted. Notifications of acceptance or non-acceptance will be sent via email in early March. 
 
Author information, affiliation, and contact information should be submitted in the body of the email only with abstract attachments made completely anonymous. 
 
Please include the title of your presentation in your abstract document. Abstracts must be submitted in .doc, .docx, or .pdf, format only. Abstracts must be no more than 300 words long and should not include the author's name or any other identifying information.
 
Questions can be sent to: LISOconference@gmail.com
 
Flyer PDF Link Here

Past Conferences & Symposium

Past CLIC/LISO Conferences

CLIC and CLIC Graduate Student Association have been hosting interdisciplinary conferences on language, interaction, and culture at UCLA since 1995. Several years after the CLIC conference had become an annual event, a collaborative partnership between CLIC GSA at UCLA and the LISO graduate students at UCSB was initiated, and in 1999 UCSB hosted the CLIC/LISO conference for the first time. Since then, the two campuses of the University of California have traded off holding the conference each year. Below you'll find the programs and schedules of many of our previous gatherings. 

 

 

Past LISO Symposia

In 2005, the LISO faculty began hosting a one-day symposium on the Sunday following the CLIC-LISO Conference in those years UCSB hosts the event.