Call for Papers
Full title: Our Great Middle Sea: Formal Explorations of Eastern Mediterranean Varieties
Date: 6 May to 8 May 2027
Location: University of Cyprus, Kallipoleos Campus TBC, Nicosia, Cyprus
Contact persons: Edgar David Martínez García and Vasilia Christofides
Email: middleseaconference@gmail.com
Linguistic field(s): Formal approaches to linguistic phenomena: syntax, semantics, and pragmatics
Call deadline: December 7, 2026
Call for Papers
We invite submissions for the Great Middle Sea Conference, to be held at the University of Cyprus in Nicosia from May 6 to May 8, 2027. The conference will focus on formal approaches to phenomena characteristic of the languages and dialects spoken in the Eastern Mediterranean. These include varieties of Arabic spoken in the region, Hebrew, the languages spoken in Cyprus and Malta, and non-Semitic heritage languages such as Ladino and others.
Contributions on understudied minority languages spoken in the region, such as Aramaic, Syriac, dialects of Turkish, and others, will also be welcomed.
The conference will be divided into two parts: a two-day regular conference focusing on linguistic varieties in the Eastern Mediterranean, and a workshop focusing on the dialects spoken in Cyprus.
Possible Topics
Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:
- Dialectology
- Syntax
- Semantics
- Pragmatics
- Corpus linguistics
- Language rescue efforts
Keynote Speakers
- Hagit Borer, Queen Mary University of London
- Ur Shlonsky, University of Geneva
- Faruk Akkuş, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Submission Guidelines
Please submit an abstract of 500 words, excluding references.
All abstracts should be submitted by December 7, 2026, at midnight, via EasyChair.
All abstracts will be reviewed anonymously by at least two reviewers. Each accepted abstract will be given 30 minutes for presentation. Additionally, 10 minutes will be reserved for discussion.
Important Dates
- Deadline for abstracts: December 7, 2026, midnight
- Reviews due: January 25, 2027
- Notification of acceptance: February 7, 2027
Scientific Committee
- Ümit Atlamaz
- Spyros Armostis
- Boban Arsenijević
- Christos Christopoulos
- Ömer Demirok
- Edgar David Garcia Martinez
- Mina Giannoula
- Robert Hobberman
- Stelios Irakleous
- Brian D. Joseph
- Hasan Kaili
- Itamar Kastner
- Jaklin Kornfilt
- Lanko Marušič
- Jamal Ouhalla
- Phoevos Panagiotidis
- Anthi Revithiadou
- Gülshen Sakhatova
- Ioanna Sitaridou
- Mohammad Shormani
- Vassilios Spyropoulos