37.1981, Confs: 2026 BAAHE Conference: Human and Human-like Voices (Belgium)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1981. Thu Jun 04 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.1981, Confs: 2026 BAAHE Conference: Human and Human-like Voices (Belgium)

Moderator: Steven Moran (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Managing Editor: Valeriia Vyshnevetska
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Mara Baccaro, Daniel Swanson
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Editor for this issue: Valeriia Vyshnevetska <valeriia at linguistlist.org>

================================================================


Date: 03-Jun-2026
From: Thomas De Wispelaere [thomas.dewispelaere at uclouvain.be]
Subject: 2026 BAAHE Conference: Human and Human-like Voices


2026 BAAHE Conference: Human and Human-like Voices

Date: 27-Nov-2026 - 27-Nov-2026
Location: Louvain-la-Neuve (on site only), Belgium
Contact: Organising Committee
Contact Email: baahe-2026 at uclouvain.be
Meeting URL:
https://www.uclouvain.be/en/research-institutes/ilc/cecl/2026-baahe-conference

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Ling & Literature;
Translation
Subject Language(s): English (eng)

Submission Deadline: 01-Sep-2026

The Belgian Association of Anglicists in Higher Education (BAAHE)
unites scholars affiliated to Belgian higher education institutions
from all fields within English Studies, ranging from cultural studies
over linguistics and literary studies to translation, interpreting,
and ELT studies.
Voice is multifaceted. Not only is it connected with the sounds we
make when we speak in one or more language varieties but also with the
way we express ourselves and our opinions. Voice also encompasses
agency, involvement, empowerment, authorship and creativity. Our voice
makes it possible for us to be heard and acknowledged, to express our
unique identity and our sense of belonging to one or more groups, to
interact with others, to tell and create stories, to speak up and
stand up for our rights and beliefs. We can find our voice, choose to
speak with one voice, give someone a voice or keep our voice down. Our
voice can also be ignored and silenced.
The 2026 edition of BAAHE proposes to explore the theme “Human and
Human‑like Voices” across the various disciplines within English
studies. The theme is particularly topical at a time when machine
translation and generative artificial intelligence are blurring the
boundaries between human expression and machine‑generated speech and
discourse. The emphasis on voice also takes on special significance in
our increasingly politically polarised times as it draws our attention
to whose voices are heard and represented or silenced in research, the
media, literary work, teaching materials and official or workplace
documents for example.
The focus of contributions to the conference can be on any aspect of
human, human-like and/or non-human voice(s). Suggested topics include,
but are not limited to, the following:
Literature:
- Non-human voices: robots, animals, plants, spirits, and others
- Singing and reciting literary works (giving voice to texts)
- Spoken-word poetry and recitation
- Authorial and character voices in prose and poetry
- Unheard or invisible voices: digressions, asides, voice-over, and
others
- Vocality and voice work in drama and performances, audio books and
audio drama
- Declamation, speech and rhetoric
- Voice and trauma
- Silenced voices and recovered voices
- Embodied voice and communication (e.g. health humanities,
environmental humanities, migration settings)
Linguistics:
- Spoken language and spoken interactions
- Sociophonetic variation
- Pronunciation, prosody, voice quality
- Agency - active vs passive voice
- Metadiscourse in written and spoken texts
- Expressions of stance
- Silences in conversation analysis
- The representation of various voices (e.g. minority groups,
political groups, companies, etc.)
- L1 and L2 English voices
- Varieties of English and multilingualism
- Characterisation of human voice(s) vs GenAI voice(s)
Translation (including subtitling) and interpreting (including
sign-language):
- The translator or interpreter’s own voice
- Voice skills in interpreting
- The interpreter as an embodied or disembodied voice
- The voice/text or voice/sign interface
- Preserving the voice of a text in translation
- Conveying the speaker’s voice in signing and subtitling
- Speech bubbles and sound effects
- GenAI's voice in translation and interpreting
English language teaching:
- The teaching of spoken language and pronunciation
- Voices represented in teaching materials
- Teacher talk
- Conversation in (and beyond) the classroom
- AI-assisted task production
- AI-assisted feedback
- AI-assisted course design
- AI-generated teaching materials
- AI-assisted DDL
Please send a 500-word abstract for a 20-minute paper to
baahe-2026 at uclouvain.be by 1 September 2026. Participation in the
conference is free for BAAHE members; non-members pay a modest
registration fee (lunch not included). Participants are invited to
submit papers or proposals for a special issue to English Text
Construction, BAAHE’s international peer-reviewed journal published
with John Benjamins.
Keynote Speakers:
Professor Jennifer Richards, University of Cambridge
Professor Ellen Simon, Universiteit Gent
Important Dates:
Call for papers published: 2 June 2026
Deadline for submissions: 1 September 2026
Notifications of acceptance: 5 October 2026
Registration deadline for speakers: 6 November 2026
Registration deadline for attendees: 16 November 2026
Conference day: 27 November 2026
Local Organising Committee:
Paul Arblaster (UCLouvain)
Sylvie De Cock (UCLouvain)
Florence Detienne (UCLouvain)
Thomas De Wispeleare (UCLouvain)
James Hastings (UCLouvain)
Lieven Vandelanotte (UNamur)
Registration Fees:
Free for BAAHE members
Free for UCLouvain students
Non-BAAHE members* (regular fee): EUR 30
Non-BAAHE members* (student fee): EUR 20
*information on how to become a BAAHE member is available here:
https://baahe4.wixsite.com/baahe/join-baahe
Lunch:
All participants can join the sandwich lunch for an extra EUR 12.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------

********************** LINGUIST List Support ***********************
Please consider donating to the Linguist List, a U.S. 501(c)(3) not for profit organization:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=87C2AXTVC4PP8

LINGUIST List is supported by the following publishers:

Australian Linguistics Society https://als.asn.au/Home

Bloomsbury Publishing http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics

Cascadilla Press http://www.cascadilla.com/

De Gruyter Brill https://www.degruyterbrill.com/?changeLang=en

Edinburgh University Press http://www.edinburghuniversitypress.com

European Language Resources Association (ELRA) http://www.elra.info

John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/

Language Science Press http://langsci-press.org

Lincom GmbH https://lincom-shop.eu/

MDPI Languages https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages

MIT Press http://mitpress.mit.edu/

Multilingual Matters http://www.multilingual-matters.com/

Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG http://www.narr.de/

Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT) http://www.lotpublications.nl/

Peter Lang AG http://www.peterlang.com

SIL International Publications http://www.sil.org/resources/publications


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1981
----------------------------------------------------------