call for papers

The twelfth meeting of the “Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign Language Theory” (FEAST) colloquium will take place at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on July 6th–8th, 2026. It is organized by SignLab Amsterdam, a cross-faculty research lab of the Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication and the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation at the University of Amsterdam. 

We invite both long presentations (30-minute presentation, followed by 15-minute questions and answers) and short presentations (5-minute presentation followed by 5 minutes for questions) on any formal and experimental approaches to sign language research. We are pleased to welcome Dr. Tory Sampson (Boston University) as an invited presenter at the main session. 

In addition to the general session, this year, FEAST will include a special session dedicated to reference tracking and referential use of space in sign languages. We welcome contributions offering novel theoretical or experimental perspectives on this topic. We are furthermore happy to announce that Dr. Anne Wienholz (Universität Hamburg) has agreed to deliver an invited talk to open the discussion in this session.  

Interpretation will be provided between the following languages: Dutch Sign Language (NGT), International Sign, and English. We encourage presenters to give their presentation in sign language. 

The conference will be on location and presentations have to be delivered in person.  

We will ask conference participants for a conference fee to contribute toward the interpretation costs. More information on this fee, including the pricing levels, will be announced before registration opens. 

All accepted papers (both long and short) can be submitted for publication in the FEAST proceedings (https://raco.cat/index.php/FEAST) after the conference.

abstract submission

The anonymous abstract should include the title and indicate whether it is intended for a long or short presentation, and for the general or the special session. Abstracts may be submitted in English, IS, or NGT. Written abstracts should not be longer than two pages in length (including tables, examples and references), in 12-point type, single line spacing and 2.5 cm margins. Signed abstracts should not be longer than 5 minutes. 

Abstracts should be submitted in PDF or mp4 format through the FEAST 2026 Easychair page: https://easychair.org/conferences?conf=feast2026 

Abstracts will be reviewed by an external panel and the reviewing process will be double-blind. At most three abstracts (two of which must be co-authored) can be submitted per author. 

Abstract submission due: 

January 16th, 2026 

Acceptance notification: 

March 20th, 2026