37.155, Calls: Lavender Languages and Linguistics 32 (United Kingdom)

Wed Jan 14 12:05:02 UTC 2026

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-155. Wed Jan 14 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.155, Calls: Lavender Languages and Linguistics 32 (United Kingdom)

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Date: 12-Jan-2026
From: Burak Alp Çakar [burak.alp.cakar at liu.se]
Subject: Lavender Languages and Linguistics 32

Full Title: Lavender Languages and Linguistics 32
Short Title: LavLang32
Theme: Queer (Dis)belonging

Date: 02-Sep-2026 - 04-Sep-2026
Location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Contact Person: Dr Christian Ilbury
Meeting Email: christian.ilbury at ed.ac.uk
Web Site: https://lavlang32.ppls.ed.ac.uk

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis; General Linguistics;
Phonetics; Sociolinguistics; Text/Corpus Linguistics

Call Deadline: 16-Feb-2026

Call for Papers:
Call for Papers for Lavender Languages and Linguistics Conference
(Sept 2-4, Edinburgh) and Proposed Special Issue:
In-Group Queer Languages Beyond the West
Pioneering researchers of twentieth-century argots developed by sexual
and gender minorities documented covert lexicons employed by trans
women and gay men – often including sex workers – and, to a lesser
extent, lesbian women and trans men (Hayes 1976; Painter 1981;
Sonenschein 1969). This research typically explained the emergence of
in-group linguistic practices through the lens of Halliday’s (1976)
anti-language framework.
As the field of lavender linguistics developed, however, scholars
began to challenge the notion that these lexicons, sociolects, and
registers solely functioned as secret codes. Subsequent research moved
beyond compiling inventories of lexical terms to adopt more nuanced
analytical approaches. While some scholars have emphasized the
functional ability of sociolects to produce belonging among sex/gender
minorities (Boellstorff 2004), others reveal how such argots work to
highlight disbelonging and reify difference within a purportedly
unified LGBTQ community (Levon 2012).
Much of this scholarship has disproportionately focused on coded forms
of speech employed in Western Europe or North America (Leap 1996;
Baker 2002; Leap 2020; Chauncey 1994) and white South Africa (Cage and
Evans 2003). The epistemic hegemony of institutions within these
regions over academic knowledge production and circulation resulted in
research agendas that privilege communities and contexts most
accessible to Western academia. Our proposed special issue, however,
aims to contribute to the scholarship on queer argots outside these
regions, building upon the rich ethnographic work on bhasa gay in
Indonesia (Boellstorff 2004), swardspeak in the Philippines
(Manalansan 2003; Casabal 2008), pajubá in Brazil (Simões de Araújo
2022), and isiNgqumo in South Africa (Rudwick and Ntuli 2008), among
others.
This panel and proposed special issue seek to expand scholarly
attention to marginalized queer sociolects of the Global South,
indigenous communities, and Europe’s peripheries. Beyond regional
expansion, we invite contributions that examine how these
multifaceted, camouflaged vernaculars and their lifecycles elide
binary understandings of secrecy and visibility and open up, even if
just briefly, novel and emancipatory opportunities for
self-identification outside of dominant languages. We are particularly
interested in work that situates these linguistic practices within the
context of mass mediation and appropriation, the ascendancy of global
far-right anti-gender ideologies, and the creative, playful, and
activist-oriented terrains of 21st-century queer life (Barrett 2018).
We are seeking scholarly presentations which employ any number of
methodologies and may be pursuing scholarly research on a queer
language, either historical or contemporary. Contributors whose papers
are accepted for the panel will be invited to develop their work for
inclusion in a proposed special issue of Language and Sexuality. If
you are interested in contributing, please submit a paper title and an
abstract of no more than 400 words by February 16th to Seth Palmer at
seth.palmer at cnu.edu.

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