The Fourth Work­shop on Sino-Tibetan Lan­guages of South­west China (STLS-2016) will be held at the Uni­ver­sity of Wash­ing­ton in Seat­tle, USA, Sep­tem­ber 8–10 (Thursday–Saturday), 2016.* This is the second cir­cu­lar and preliminary request for proposed presentation titles.

In order to apply for conference funding, the organizers need a list of potential participants and presentation titles. If you anticipate participating in the workshop, please send your name, affiliation, and a provisional presentation title (in English or Chinese) to stls2016@uw.edu by December 15. (Note that providing this information does not guarantee acceptance of your abstract, which will be determined later through the regular anonymous abstract review process.)

The following information is updated from the first circular:

1. All pre­sen­ta­tions will be selected by anonymous review of abstracts.
2. We antic­i­pate an abstract sub­mis­sion period from December 1, 2015 to Feb­ru­ary 29, 2016. The pro­ce­dure for abstract sub­mis­sion will be announced in the third circular.
3. Results of abstract review (acceptance/rejection) will be sent out in April 2016.
4. The con­fer­ence web site address is http://blogs.uw.edu/stls2016. The site will be built out with addi­tional con­tent over the next few months. Copies of all email cir­cu­lars are posted on the site.
5. If you did not receive this circular directly from stls2016@uw.edu, and would like to be added to the mail­ing list for future work­shop announce­ments, please send a request by email to stls2016@uw.edu with your name and pre­ferred email address.

Please dis­trib­ute this circular widely to col­leagues, email lists, and other appro­pri­ate venues.

We look for­ward to wel­com­ing you in Seat­tle next autumn!

With all best wishes,

Zev Han­del (on behalf of the STLS-2016 Orga­niz­ing Com­mit­tee)
stls2016@uw.edu
http://blogs.uw.edu/stls2016

* For more on the history and name of the workshop, see http://blogs.uw.edu/stls2016/about/.

I am pleased to announce that the Fourth Workshop on Sino-Tibetan Languages of Southwest China (STLS-2016)* will be held at the University of Washington, in Seattle, USA, September 8-10 (Thu-Sat), 2016. This email constitutes the first circular and “save the date” announcement.**

While it is still early days and many details remain to be worked out, I would like to draw your attention to the following aspects of the workshop:

1. All presentations will be selected by anonymous review of abstracts.
2. We anticipate an abstract submission period from approximately October 2015 through February 2016. Specific dates and the procedure for abstract submission will be disseminated in a future circular.
3. Results of abstract review (acceptance/rejection) will be sent out in April 2016.
4. The conference web site address is http://blogs.uw.edu/stls2016. The site will be built out with additional content over the next few months. A copy of this circular can be found on the home page.
5. If you would like to be added to the mailing list for future workshop announcements, please send email to stls2016@uw.edu with your name and preferred email address.

Please distribute this announcement widely to colleagues, email lists, and other appropriate venues.

We look forward to welcoming you in Seattle next autumn!

With all best wishes,

Zev Handel (on behalf of the STLS-2016 Organizing Committee)
stls2016@uw.edu

* The inaugural workshop was hosted in 2008 by the Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica (Taipei), the second in 2010 by the Center for Chinese Linguistics of Peking University (Beijing), and the third in 2013 by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Paris). The first two workshops were titled “Tibeto-Burman Languages of Sichuan” and the third “Sino-Tibetan Languages of Sichuan”. The change in title of this fourth workshop from “Sichuan” to “Southwest China” has been made in recognition of the fact that many of the languages and language groups under scrutiny at these workshops are not confined to the provincial borders of Sichuan. The name change is a natural outcome of the expanded areal focus seen at the 2013 workshop, with its special theme of “Sino-Tibetan languages of Sichuan in their Areal Context”.

** The dates for the 22nd Himalayan Languages Symposium (HLS), to be held in Guwahati in 2016, have not yet been set. The 2010-2013 HLS were all held in early September. In the event that the dates of the 2016 HLS conflict with our workshop dates, we will consider rescheduling. See http://www.himalayansymposium.org/ for updates on HLS scheduling.