International Conference on the Evolution of Language (Evolang XV)

Conference Details

EVOLANG is the largest international meeting for researchers working on the origin and evolution of language. The conference is highly interdisciplinary, with contributions from disciplines including, but not limited to: anthropology, archeology, biology, cognitive science, genetics, linguistics, computational modeling (including mathematical, agent-based, and neural-network models), paleontology, physiology, primatology, philosophy, semiotics, and psychology. Typically, about 300 delegates attend, with representatives from all these disciplines.

The conference language will be English. We will have ASL interpreters on hand for providing interpreting to/from ASL (other sign languages may be a possibility) To gauge demand for interpreting services, please complete this survey if you think you could benefit from sign language interpreting.

Abstract Submission Deadline (extended): October 13th, 2023

Submit your paper

Plenary Speakers

Marieke Schouwstra

University of Amsterdam

Nick Enfield

University of Sydney

Marie Coppola

University of Connecticut

Salikoko Mufwene

University of Chicago

Nicole Creanza

Vanderbilt University

Submission Information

Please see here for complete information on submission requirements.
There are two types of submissions:

Abstracts (up to 2 pages, excl. references and acknowledgements).
Full papers (up to 6 pages, excl. references and acknowledgements)

Authors are limited to one first-authored podium presentation (15 min talk + 5 min Q&A) and one first-authored poster. There is no limit on the number of submissions for which you can be a non-first author. When submitting, please indicate your preferred mode of presentation (podium talk or poster). We hope to see as many of you as possible in person, but we understand that travel to the US is not possible for all presenters. We will be able to offer a limited number of virtual flash talks and podium presentations. All accepted submissions will be published in an online proceedings volume to appear before the start of the conference. Submissions portal will open Sept 7th, 2023. In addition, we are soliciting workshop proposals which should be emailed directly to Gary Lupyan at lupyan@wisc.edu.

Normal standards of academic excellence apply. Submitted papers should make clear how they advance the study of language evolution and relate any novel results to up to date scientific literature. Submissions should make clear the method by which their claims are substantiated, the nature of the relevant data, and/or the core of the theoretical argument. Submissions centered around empirical studies should not rest on preliminary results. All submissions are refereed by at least three relevant referees, and acceptance is based on a scoring scheme pooling the reports of the referees. In recent conferences, the acceptance rate has been about 50%.

Organizers

Local Organizing Committee

Gary Lupyan (Local organizer)

Robert Hawkins (Liaison to Scientific Committee)

Zachary Studdiford (Technical planning and logistics)

Scientific Committee

Limor Raviv (chair)

Jonas Nölle (chair)

Kirstie Graham

Yannick Jadoul

Mathilde Josserand

Stefan Hartmann

Theresa Matzinger

Katie Mudd

Michael Pleyer

Anita Slonimska

Slawomir Wacewicz

Stuart Watson

Venue

How to Get Here

Madison (pop. ~272k) is the capital of Wisconsin and the home of University of Wisconsin's flagship campus. The conference will be held at the Monona Terrace--a beautiful conference venue designed by Frank Lloyd Wright on the shores of Lake Monona.

Fly to Madison

We recommend flying into Dane County Regional Airport (MSN) which has nonstop flights to many major cities around the country and has the benefit of being just 10 minutes from downtown Madison. From MSN, you can get to downtown using a taxi, Uber, or Lyft.

MSN →

Fly to Milwaukee

Another option is to fly to Milwaukee (MKE), a slightly larger airport, about 80 miles East of Madison. Milwaukee has more flights and depending on your origin may be cheaper. There's a direct bus from MKE to Madison, but make sure to check the bus schedule first.

Bus Info → 🚌

Fly to Chicago

Another option, which may make sense if you're traveling internationally, is to fly to Chicago's O'Hare airport (ORD, about 130 miles Southeast of Madison) and take a bus to Madison (~3hrs, but is sometimes faster than connecting to a flight to Madison).

Bus Info → 🚌

Accommodations

We have pre-booked two hotels for the conference: Park Hotel and Hilton at Monona Terrace. We invite you to take advantage of this time away from your daily lives to catch up on the latest developments in the field and to deepen your appreciation of the amazing research being done in the language evolution community. We also invite you to consider how our work may be a force for positive change back in the real world. We hope you will take us up on these invitations--in the conference hall, at the lively Union Terrace, at the Saturday farmer’s market on the Capitol Square, and at the many fine eating and drinking establishments nearby. We will also be planning several excursions after the main conference.

Learn more!