Summer/Winter Schools

The Center for the Study of Language and Society (CSLS) at the University of Bern is pleased to invite applications for the 2026 CSLS Summer School, which will take place in Bern 9-11 June 2026.

The theme of the 2026 Summer School is De/Valuing Language. The Summer School is an interactive three-day event that explores how language and speakers are assigned value - or are devalued - in social, institutional, and political contexts. Participants will critically engage with the topic of language and value from different sociolinguistic perspectives, including research on language attitudes and the social meaning of variation, the critical study of the relation between language and ideologies of personhood, and the intersection of language and the law. We invite participants from within any sub-field of sociolinguistics with an interest in the relationship between language and social value.

The summer school includes guest lectures and workshops by:

• Susan Ehrlich, York University
• Angela Reyes, City University of New York
• Laura Rosseel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

In addition to lectures and workshops, participants will have the opportunity to receive feedback on their own research, network with other scholars, and meet peers. The Summer School is open to PhD students, advanced MA students, and early career researchers in Sociolinguistics, and is free of charge.

Spaces are limited. To apply for a spot, please send a short description (max. 300 words) of your research interests and ongoing project(s) to info.csls@unibe.ch by Saturday 31 January 2026.

Susan Ehrlich is based in Toronto, Canada at York University. She is a discourse analyst/sociolinguist whose work has focused on language and social inequalities in the legal system. Books include Representing Rape (2001), “Why Do You Ask?” The Function of Questions in Institutional Discourse (co-edited with Alice Freed, 2010), The Blackwell Handbook of Language, Gender and Sexuality (co-edited with Miriam Meyerhoff and Janet Holmes, 2014) and Discursive Constructions of Consent in the Legal Process (co-edited with Diana Eades and Janet Ainsworth, 2016). With Tommaso Milani, she is co-editor of the journal, Language in Society.

Angela Reyes is Professor of English and Anthropology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her research examines historical and contemporary formations of language and personhood in the U.S. and the Philippines. Her books include The Oxford Handbook of Language and Race (co-edited with H. Samy Alim and Paul Kroskrity), Discourse Analysis Beyond the Speech Event (co-authored with Stanton Wortham), Beyond Yellow English: Toward a Linguistic Anthropology of Asian Pacific America (co-edited with Adrienne Lo), and Language, Identity, and Stereotype Among Southeast Asian American Youth: The Other Asian.

Laura Rosseel is associate professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium where she teaches courses in sociolinguistics, Dutch linguistics and Dutch proficiency. Laura’s research focuses on the social meaning of language variation. In addition to a methodological focus on new approaches to measure social meaning, she has a particular interest in how children and adults learn to socially evaluate language.