Language Policy Forum – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Call for papers: British Association for Applied Linguistics Language Policy Forum, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, 22-23 April 2026. Deadline: 27 October 2025.

2026 marks 50 years since Joshua Fishman‘s foundational volume Bilingual Education: An International Sociological Perspective (1976), a cornerstone in establishing language policy as a distinct discipline. 2026 also marks 20 years since the publication of An Introduction to Language Policy: Theory and Method, a collection edited by Thomas Ricento and showcasing the leading lights of what had become by then a flourishing research field.

In his volume, Fishman argued that language policy (or more specifically bilingual education) was good for majorities, minorities, language learning, and education. In this spirit, LPF 2026 invites submissions informed by this disciplinary heritage, and those which go beyond it, to examine language policy across different areas of civic and societal engagement. We take a broad approach to language policy; we welcome any submissions related to decision-making about language use.

The Language Policy Forum is international, affordable, and accessible –– a premier international meeting of specialists with extra attention to facilitating access.

Call for papers: Language Policy Forum 2018, 31 May – 1 June 2018, at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Deadline extended to 15 January 2018.

The Language Policy Forum 2018 invites scholars, practitioners and other stakeholders to take stock of what language policy means in times of growing diversity. We are especially interested in presentations that discuss dilemmas (language-related problems in the world) and hopes (possible solutions, perhaps as a result of applying research findings).

Language policy permeates all domains of life, from the workplace, to the home and family, to schools, government, and other institutional settings. It materialises as something that enables some people to participate in these domains of life, and constrains others. The BAAL Language Policy group exists to enable dialogue on all areas of language policy research. We therefore encourage theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions from fields such as (but by no means limited to): sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, political philosophy, economics, education, globalisation, and migration. As well as examining diversity within human populations, we encourage discussions of our own diversity of research practices: topics and data, methodologies, and practical applications. We also encourage pedagogical submissions, exploring innovative approaches to the teaching of language policy in higher education.