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The 57th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 57) will be held at the University at Buffalo, May 21–23, 2026. ACAL welcomes papers on any area of African linguistics for paper or poster presentations.
Quick notes
See below for detailed submission guidelines.
Abstracts may be submitted for consideration for oral session ("paper") presentation, poster presentation, or either formats
Paper presentations will be 20 minutes long, with 10 minutes for questions.
Poster format details and information on local printing options will be released closer to the date of the conference.
The conference will be held in person with a remote component (i.e. hybrid format) for some sessions to be determined.
Early deadline (for visa applicants needing early notice of acceptance): October 15, 2025; also see notes below
Final deadline: January 9, 2026
All deadlines are 11:59 PM, anywhere on Earth.
We aim to provide decisions on all abstracts submitted by the early deadline by the end of October and on all submitted abstracts by mid-to-late February.
Because the situation for visa applicants trying to enter the United States is especially difficult at this time, we are making efforts to accommodate participants based in Africa. Those who wish to attend in person and who need to obtain a visa should submit their abstract as soon as possible and indicate their timeline for obtaining a visa in the comments field of the submission form; their abstracts will be reviewed on a rolling basis as needed, and we will reach out with an acceptance decision to support their visa application process as soon as possible.
This expedited review process will end on October 15. If you require expedited review after that date, please get in touch with the conference organizers by email, and we will do our best to accommodate your request.
For those who determine that it will not be possible to obtain a visa, we encourage them to take advantage of our remote presentation options. Remote presentations are eligible for publication in the proceedings in the same way as in-person presentations.
Abstracts should be submitted in English and in PDF format. The main text of the abstract should not exceed one page with 1-inch margins and 12 points font. A second page can be used for data, figures, tables, and references. Non-English language data should include interlinear glosses following the Leipzig Glossing Rules.
All abstracts will be subject to blind review, and so they must be anonymized. Some guidelines for writing successful conference abstracts can be found here.
Submission instructions
Use this online form to submit abstracts. You will be asked to provide information about authors and to upload your PDF abstract as an attachment.
Please note that in order to present a paper or poster at ACAL 57, presenting authors must be members of the Association of Contemporary African Linguistics (ACAL). There is a separate process for paying ACAL dues and information on joining the Association or renewing your membership can be found here.
Publication of proceedings
The proceedings volume, tentatively titled Selected Papers from the 57th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, will be published in the series Contemporary African Linguistics by Language Science Press. Any work presented at the conference ("paper" or poster; in-person or remote) may be submitted for inclusion in the proceedings. All submissions are subject to peer review, and presentation at the conference is not a guarantee of acceptance in the proceedings.
Contact
All questions about abstract submission should be emailed to acal57buffalo@gmail.com.