SALALS Conference 2025

Keynotes

  • Prof Lynn Mario T. Menezes de Souza

Lynn Mario T. Menezes de Souza is senior full professor at the Modern Languages Department of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where he engages in and supervises doctoral and post-doctoral research in language policy, literacy studies, racism, decoloniality and interculturality. He has held visiting professorships in Italy, India, Canada and Australia. 

His publications include the co-edited volumes: Postcolonial Perspectives on Global Citizenship Education (2012) and Glocal Languages and Critical Intercultural Awareness: the south answers back (2019). His most recent publications in English include Coloniality, Epistemicide and Language Learning in Brazil in Limerick, N. et al (eds) 2024 Multilingual Nations, Monolingual Schools; Kshetra and the nurturing of a plurilingual ethos (2024) Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices vol. 4.2; Conversation with Lynn Mario Menezes de Souza in Deumert, A. & Makoni, S. (eds) 2023 From Southern Theory to Decolonizing Sociolinguistics.

  • Prof Quentin Williams

Quentin Williams is Director of the Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research (CMDR) and Full Professor of Linguistics in the Linguistics Department at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). He was previously the Ghent Chair Professor (Leerstoel Houer) at the Centre for Afrikaans and the study of South Africa at Ghent University (Belgium) (2022). He is Co-Editor of the journal Multilingual Margins: a journal of Multilingualism from the periphery, editorial board member of the journal Aweh: a journal for minoritized languages, founder and chairperson of the Society virrieAdvancement van Kaaps (SAK), and co-founder of the Heal the Hood Hip Hop Lecture Series, a forum for the African Hip Hop Indaba. His research interests include but are not limited to multilingualism, linguistic citizenship, popular culture (specifically Hip Hop language and culture), youth multilingualism, marginal multilingual practices in markets, the intellectualisation of Kaaps (also known as Afrikaaps), language activism and public sociolinguistics, and Kaaps gospel music. He has published in high impact sociolinguistic and applied linguistic journals, including the journals of Applied Linguistics, Applied Linguistics Reviews and Sociolinguistic Studies. His most recent booksare Global Hiphopography, with Jaspal Singh (Palgrave, 2023) and Struggles for Multilingualism and Linguistic Citizenship with Tommaso Milani and Ana Deumert (Multilingual Matters, 2022). Previously, he authored Remix Multilingualism (Bloomsbury Press, 2017), and co-edited Neva Again: Hip Hop Art, Activism and Education in post-apartheid South Africa (HSRC Press, 2019, with Adam Haupt, H Samy Alim and Emile YX?), and Making Sense of People and Place in Linguistic Landscapes (Bloomsbury, 2018, with Amiena Peck and Christopher Stroud). He leads the Trilingual Dictionary of Kaaps (TWK) project that will publish the first dictionary of Kaaps (2025) (see here: www.dwkaaps.co.za).    

  • Prof Babalwa Magoqwana

Babalwa Magoqwana – Associate Professor and a Director for the Centre for Women and Gender Studies at Nelson Mandela University.  She serves as a board member of the South African Sociological Review Journal,  a former president of the South African Sociological Association (SASA from 2017-2019); she holds a number of fellowships with the University of Michigan Presidential Scholars Programme; American Learned Societies Council’s African Humanities Programme and DHET Future Professors Programme (2023). Her research interest includes- the sociology of gender, sociology of knowledge production and sociology of work. She has co-edited three special issues including: Higher Education: Power, Practice and Actors (South African Review of Sociology); Thirty Years of Ifi Amadiume’ s Male Daughters and Female Husbands. (Journal of Contemporary African Studies) and Maternal Legacies of Knowledge: Rethinking the Sociology of the Eastern Cape (Social Dynamics: African Studies Journal). Her multi-award winning research was supported by both  National Research Foundation (2018) and the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (2022). Magoqwana has also served as the Member of the Ministerial Taks Team appointed to investigate GBV/SH in Public Universities in South Africa from 2019-2022. Her recent co-edited book is titled “Inyathi Ibuzwa kwabaphambili: Theorising South African Women’s intellectual Legacies (by Mandela University Press).

About the Conference

Theme: Traditions, transformations, and African thought: Imagining Linguistics in Africa for the 21st century

The 2025 conference of the Southern African Linguistics and Applied Linguistics Society (SALALS) will be held at Nelson Mandela University, 25 -27 June, 2025.

The theme of the conference is “Traditions, transformations, and African thought: Imagining Linguistics in Africa for the 21st century”. In the South African imaginary, “traditions”, “transformation” and “African thought” are core concepts that signify our diverse pasts and present(s). Traditions represent a connection to the past that we experience in the present and use to build a bridge to the future. Transformation, as a notion of change, is inevitable and would require a renewed conceptualisation of language. It is important that this renewed conceptualisation of language is embedded in African thought, but also taking into account Africa’s positioning in the 21st century.

Therefore, how can we imagine a Linguistics in Africa for the 21st century building on our traditions while fostering transformation underpinned by a strong foundation in African thought?

The annual SALALS conference attracts diverse presenters both nationally and internationally to exchange comprehensive and stimulating discussions in the forms of paper and poster presentations, as well as workshops. It also offers thought-provoking plenary presentations, and abundant opportunities for networking.

Join us as we unlock knowledge at the intersection of language, society, and innovation, fostering dialogue that inspires new ideas and collaborative efforts for a brighter future.

We invite abstracts for papers, posters and workshops under the following subthemes and related areas:

o Social justice and humanising pedagogy (linguistic diversity and inclusion)
o Digital humanities (language and technology and 4IR)
o Translation and interpreting
o Multilingualism in context
o First and second language acquisition
o Syntax
o Morphology
o Semantics
o Discourse analysis
o Phonetics and Phonology
o Language and the law (forensic linguistics)
o Gender, language, and power
o Semiotics
o Onomastics
o Language, identity, and culture
o Language, culture, and medicine
o Language, knowledge, and archive
o Language and education
o Language and business
o Language standardisation
o Historical linguistics
o Linguistic migration
o Psycholinguistics

Registration fees

Normal registration: 28 February 2025 to 3 June 2025

ZAR 3 630 for non-members*

ZAR 2 750 for paid-up members

ZAR 1 500 for students that are not paid-up members*

ZAR 1 250 for students that are paid-up members

*The conference fee for non-SALALS members includes membership for the 2025 calendar year.

Late registration: 3 to 17 June (midnight) 2025

ZAR 3 960 for non-members
ZAR 3 300 for paid-up members*
ZAR 1500 for students that are not paid-up members
ZAR1 250 for students that are paid-up members

*SALALS members with outstanding membership fees will pay an additional amount of R880 for registration.

Important dates

28 February 2025 (Friday) – Normal registration opens
21 March 2025 (Friday) – Deadline for submission of proposals (workshops)
4 April 2025 (Friday) – Authors notified of acceptance (workshops)
25 April 2025 (Friday) – Deadline for submission of abstracts (papers and posters)
16 May 2025 (Monday) – Authors notified of acceptance (papers and poster)
30 May 2025 (Friday) – Provisional conference programme published
3 June 2025 (Monday) – Late registration opens
6 June 2025 (Tuesday) – Registration for workshops open
17 June 2025 (Tuesday) – Registration closes
20 June 2025 (Friday) – Final conference programme published

Conference Email and Abstract Submission Link

For enquiries, please contact Mr Lidon Chauke at: Lidon.Chauke@Mandela.ac.za

To submit your abstract, please visit the following link: https://forms.gle/dgPopKw381v24Y1Y8

Submission guidelines

Abstracts for papers and posters should be between 250-300 words, and workshop proposals may not exceed 500 words.

Please follow the following link to submit your abstract or workshop proposal:

Submission link will be announced soon.

Presenters are encouraged to submit their abstracts in any official language of
South Africa. Abstracts written in any language other than English must be
accompanied by an English translation.

  • If you are not going to present in English, please indicate in the heading of your
    abstract in which language you are planning to present your
    paper/poster/workshop.
  • Please indicate if your abstract is for the main conference or a workshop (and if so
    which workshop).
  • All abstracts will be peer-reviewed.
  • No changes will be made to abstracts once they have been accepted.
  • No abstracts will be accepted after the deadline of 25 April 2025.

Abstracts for workshop proposals

  • Workshop abstracts should include the following:
    ▪ Easy to read title
    ▪ A clear description of the aim of the workshop
    ▪ Workshop proposals may not exceed 500 words
    ▪ Deadline for submission of workshop proposals is Monday 21 March 2025 (midnight)