UCSC HOSTS WEST COAST CONFERENCE ON FORMAL LINGUISTICS THIS WEEKEND

On the weekend of Friday April 13th to Sunday April 15th, the Department will host WCCFL 30, the Thirtieth Meeting of the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. The first WCCFL took place at Stanford in 1982 and the conference has been held every year but one (2009) since then, hosted by departments of linguistics up and down the west coast of North America, very broadly construed (it has been in Arizona three times). UC Santa Cruz hosted the third WCCFL (in 1984) and hosted it again in 1993 (WCCFL 12) and in 2002 (WCCFL 21). It is generally regarded as one of the most prestigious and selective conferences in theoretical linguistics in the world.

Planning for the conference began almost a year ago, initiated by former LRC Coordinator Debbie Belville, and has continued under the stewardship of the current LRC Coordinator Maggie Bardacke, with the assistance of just about everyone in the department. The program looks stellar: 27 talks and 13 poster presentations in all areas of theoretical linguistics by linguists from all over the world, including plenary lectures by alum Chris Potts of Stanford, Kie Zuraw of UCLA, and Jeff Lidz of the University of Maryland.

We’re looking forward to welcoming colleagues and friends to Santa Cruz for the event and especially looking forward to the WCCFL 30 party in the Stevenson Event Center on Saturday evening, April 14th.