YARN 2026: Innaugural Workshop of the Young Africanists' Research Network University of Göttingen Göttingen, Germany, March 19-20, 2026

The goal of the newly founded Young Africanists' Research Network (YARN) is to highlight linguistic research being done on African languages and the early-career scholars behind this work. We also seek to foster collaboration and discussion surrounding theoretical and methodological issues in our field. To meet this aim, we are hosting our inaugural workshop on March 19th-20th, 2026 at the University of Göttingen.

Submission Guidelines

We invite early-career researchers (advanced graduate students, PhD and post-docs) to submit their current research on any African language in any subfield of linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics or psycholinguistics). We are also especially interested in submissions concerning fieldwork and data-processing methodologies.

All abstracts should be anonymous and in PDF format. Submissions should be no longer than an A4-page, with font size 11, though a second page may be used for references, figures, and as many lines as there are lines of glosses and translations of examples. Examples must be glossed and integrated into the main text. Authors may submit up to two abstracts for consideration.

Invited Speakers

• Mary Amaechi - University of Ilorin, University of Bielefeld
• Felix Ameka - Leiden University

Organizing Committee

• Madeline Ladore
• Adele Banafo
• Adom Mac-Arthur
• Rebecca Arkell
• Carla Bombi
• Jeanne Lecavelier
• Josiah Nii Ashie Neequaye
• Salka Nouanti

Venue

The conference will be held at the University of Göttingen, in Göttingen, Germany

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to youngafricanistresearchnetwork@gmail.com