Conference

Historical Sociolinguistics Young Researchers Forum

Date: Friday 30 January 2026 - Saturday 31 January 2026
Address: see the programme

HSYRF is back! The Historical Sociolinguistics Network (HiSoN), as sponsored by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) as part of its Historical Sociolinguistics Research and Training Program, is proud to announce a brand new edition of the Historical Sociolinguistics Young Researchers Forum (HSYRF).

This yearly event is aimed at early career researchers – MA and PhD students, postdocs, and other young (at heart) researchers –, offering a mix of lectures, classes and hands-on workshops on various topics relevant to anyone interested in historical sociolinguistics or language history more generally.

HSYRF comprises two workshops, a masterclass and a keynote lecture (the “Bad Data Lecture”). Participants choose one of the workshops. The masterclass and the keynote lecture are plenary events.

Registration

Registration includes tuition, coffee breaks and lunch on Friday. The fee for participation is € 50.

Since there is only room for 40 participants, applications will be treated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, taking also into account research interests. Follow the link below to get to the registration form. When we have received and reviewed your application, we will send you a Paylogic link.

The deadline for registration is 31 December 2025.

Previous editions

2018 Vrije Universiteit Brussel
2019 Leiden University
2020 Vrije Universiteit Brussel
2021 Online edition
2023 Leiden University
2025 Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Programme

Friday 30 January

09:00 - 09:30	Coffee/tea, opening and welcome
09:30 - 12:30	Workshops – part one - Lipsius 1.30 & 1.31 John Bellamy (Manchester Metropolitan University), Analysing language standardization in historical sociolinguistics Mo Gordon (Leiden University), From manuscripts to data: Building sustainable and portable corpora for historical sociolinguists Participants choose one six-hour workshop, which will be taught in two blocks of three hours on Friday and Saturday morning.
12:30 - 14:00	Lunch
14:00 - 16:30	Masterclass - Lipsius 1.23 Wendy Ayres-Bennett (University of Cambridge), *Analysing text-type and genre: current trends and future directions*
16:30 - 17:00	Coffee/tea
17:15 - 18:15	The Bad Data Lecture - Lipsius 1.23 Laura Wright (University of Cambridge), If you hadn’t bin doneyin all the time/You’d’ve bin a healthy child today (Crying Sam Collins and his Git-Fiddle, 1927, Pork Chop Blues)
18:15	Dinner (at own expense)

Saturday 31 January

PLNT (Langegracht 70, Leiden)

09:00 - 09:30	Coffee/tea
09:30 - 12:30	Workshops – part two

Funded by:

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