Steve Daniel Przymus Conference Summary

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Steve Daniel Przymus

Ph.D. Candidate
Second Language Acquisition & Teaching GIDP

Conference Summary
International Linguistic Landscapes Workshop
Berkeley, CA
May 7-9, 2015

With the gracious support of the Herbert E. Carter travel award, I attended and presented my research at the 7th International Linguistic Landscapes Workshop on the campus of U.C. Berkeley.  This was the first time for this workshop, previously held in Israel, Italy, France, Ethiopia, Belgium, and South Africa, to be held in the U.S.  The opportunity for me to share my research in front of the international linguistic landscape community, including several founders of the field, Elana Shohamy, Adam Jaworski, and Eliezer Ben-Rafael, proved to be extremely important for my academic career.  The sharing and networking that took place over the three days of the conference has resulted in an invitation to present on a panel at the upcoming Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) conference and the possibility of the future publication of my conference paper. 

This conference was only the seventh international conference on linguistic landscape research, and due to the short history of the field, many conversations took place regarding the future directions of methodology and theory.  Several notable plenary speakers, Claire Kramsch, Leanne Hinton, Susan Moffat, and Patricia Baquedano-Lopez, all engaged in this discussion.  I took the opportunity several times to offer my own suggestions for the future direction of linguistic landscape research and in collaboration with other researchers, I have put forth potential constructs that may take hold and become part of the literature and nomenclature of this field.  I am very thankful for the H. E. Carter travel award for helping to defray the cost of travel to and stay at Berkeley, in order for me to have these important interactions and experiences. 

Beyond the benefits discussed above, an additional tangible benefit of attending and presenting at this conference may prove to be connections made just prior to going on the job market.  I was able to have many opportunities to informally discuss my research, future research ideas, and courses that I have taught and would like to teach, with academics from many different institutions. 

I come away from this conference experience invigorated to finish my dissertation research and confident moving into the job market phase.  I am truly grateful to the Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs Advisory Council and the Herbert E. Carter travel award for providing me with this support.