[Linganth] SLA Conference, May 29-31, Chicago

[E. Summerson Carr]

Dear All,
Please join us in Chicago later this month for the 2025 Society of Linguistic Anthropology (SLA) conference: <https://www.2025slaconference.org/> Imagination<https://www.2025slaconference.org/>, <https://www.2025slaconference.org/> Creation<https://www.2025slaconference.org/>, <https://www.2025slaconference.org/> Critique<https://www.2025slaconference.org/>.
The conference invites participants to explore the many ways that imagination shapes, reproduces, and transforms social worlds across times, spaces, and scales through discursive and non-discursive processes and practices. Starting with the idea of imagination as movement toward a thing, state-of-affairs, and/or set of ideas that does not (yet) exist, we prompt participants to ask: Who imagines? What gets imagined? What is the relationship between imagination and forms of individual and collective action, including narrative, claims-making, and other rhetorical modes? How can we understand the myriad instantiations of imagination, creation, and critique—from innovation, construction, or invention to destruction, violence, or the reinforcement of the status quo?  We welcome proposals that make use of varied methods and frameworks to engage with the role of language, communication, and discourse. We also encourage work on imagination, creation, and critique that is not narrowly or overtly linguistic. The conference convenes anthropologists across sub-fields as well as colleagues working in neighboring disciplines.
The conference also experiments with new ways of gathering and innovative forms and formats of presenting scholarly work in the hopes of democratizing the event and thereby providing robust opportunities for students.  For instance, in lieu of keynote addresses, we will host a single plenary poster session, with senior, well-known scholars presenting their work alongside students and other emerging scholars. “Making and Doing” sessions—which include a session devoted to making language visible through illustration and other graphic techniques and a live podcast recording about language and global politics—are workshops that result in tangible products.
Registration
If you are interested in joining us, please <https://www.2025slaconference.org/register> register<https://www.2025slaconference.org/register> for the conference as soon as possible. There are a limited number of full conference registration spaces left, as well as single-day rates for non-presenting attendees.
Lodging
The SLA has secured a discounted group rate for rooms at three hotels within walking distance to the conference venue. All three hotels still have available rooms for conference attendees. In order to both distribute on-the-ground conference labor and to promote sociality and conviviality between all conference participants, all registrants must sign up for one hour of volunteer time during the conference.  Please use these direct <https://www.2025slaconference.org/housing> booking links<https://www.2025slaconference.org/housing> on the conference website.
Volunteering
In order to both distribute on-the-ground conference labor and to promote sociality and conviviality between all conference participants, all registrants are asked to <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdNr5qWRdq4i_Wq7-dBvFYIrHLFLdGJXClC8jP3D3ob1_Smhg/viewform> sign up<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdNr5qWRdq4i_Wq7-dBvFYIrHLFLdGJXClC8jP3D3ob1_Smhg/viewform> for one hour of volunteer time during the conference.
We look forward to welcoming you to the SLA Conference at the University of Chicago later this month.

Sincerely,
The SLA Conference Steering Committee (Josh Babcock, Dominika Baran,  Summerson Carr, Thea Strand)

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E. Summerson Carr, Professor

Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice//Department of Anthropology

Faculty Associate, Center for Gender Studies & Department of Comparative Human Development

University of Chicago



President of Society of Linguistic Anthropology, 2023-2025



[A book cover with text and images of a person and person  Description automatically generated]

Working the Difference: Science, Spirit, and the Spread of Motivational Interviewing<https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/W/bo201564143.html> (Chicago, 2023)


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