GURT 2026: Futuring Linguistics: Content, Curriculum & Careers (Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 2026) Georgetown University Washington, DC, United States, March 6-8, 2026

The 2026 Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics (GURT) will be held Friday March 6 - Sunday March 8, 2026. 

THEME:

FUTURING LINGUISTICS: Content, Curriculum & Careers

What does the future of linguistics look like? What should it look like? If current trends in the field continue, as well as in academia and education, the vast majority of linguistics graduates will find employment in tech, business, government and nonprofit organizations rather than in higher education.

GURT 2026 is a place for linguists from a wide range of subdisciplinary areas and career trajectories to have important conversations about what’s next for linguistics. What innovations are we engaging in at the levels of content, curriculum and pedagogy, as well as career education and training? We welcome abstracts for individual papers, posters, and colloquiums that engage with any aspect of the following:

1. Content: What content should linguistics programs teach now so that graduates are prepared to be flexible and effective in their careers? How can linguistics programs continue to fulfill their educational mission while also making clear how the knowledge and skills learned in those programs translate into valuable career skills?
2. Curriculum and pedagogy: How should linguistics professors teach linguistics? What pedagogical innovations are you engaged in? How should departments recruit and retain students from a diverse array of backgrounds as the future leaders of our field? 
3. Careers: How are content and pedagogy connected to a wide range of career pathways? What should be included in linguistics education to prepare for the next decades of careers? What feedback and recommendations do linguists working in business, government, nonprofit and tech have for linguistics degree programs in terms of content and training?

WAYS TO PARTICIPATE:

GURT 2026 encourages a wide range of views and perspectives on our field. Below are ways to participate:

1. Share your work in the sociology of the field of linguistics, which includes study of how the discipline has been formed, how knowledge is produced and legitimized within the field, and how linguistics is influenced by social factors like power and institutional organizations. Research on the state of the field is welcomed from multiple perspectives, for example: 

• What are the employment outcomes for linguistics graduates?
• How does the field address post-graduate employment and/or employment precarity? 
• Who enters linguistics degree programs--from undergraduate majors to postgraduate students--and who leaves?

2. Share your current research in linguistics–in whatever specialization you have–with a focus on the wider implications of this research, and how we build the future of our field. In other words, your presentation will be about your research and your research questions, but the majority of your presentation will explain the “implications” in more depth and breadth than you may typically consider for academic paper publication. For example:

• How does your research serve as a bridge to show potential employers and colleagues in other sectors (business, government, nonprofit and tech) that linguistics provides useful insights and solutions for those sectors?
• How can your research help your students to solve problems in other fields and sectors? 
• How does your research serve to recruit and retain undergraduate majors and/or postgraduate students?
• How could this research serve as part of a curriculum for a “service course” in linguistics that would engage undergraduates at your college or university who are not linguistics majors?
• How can your research help create orn connect to employment opportunities for post-graduate placement?

3. Share your work in business, government, nonprofit and tech organizations in areas where you employ your linguistics education, and where/how you have seen linguistics as crucial for your work and your organization. For example:

• What theories, methods, skills and topics from your linguistics training have helped you the most in your career, and how?
• How does your linguistics training provide a unique and valuable perspective on the questions and challenges you face in your work?
• What new approaches or insights from linguistics does your work or your sector need the most moving forward?

GURT 2026 will represent a number of different academic and professional perspectives on linguistics. Let’s take this opportunity to share practices that can enliven and invigorate our teaching, research and work in various organizational contexts to keep linguistics a strong, viable area of training, research and post-graduate employment for years to come. 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

Deadline: November 17, 2025, 11:59 pm U.S. Eastern Time. 

1. Individual papers (20 minutes followed by 10 minutes for discussion). You will be asked for:

• Author information
• The title
• An abstract (of not more than 300 words)
• An abbreviated abstract (of not more than 500 characters) for inclusion in the program
• 3-5 keywords 
• Indicate whether, if your paper is not accepted for oral presentation, you would like your paper to be considered for the poster session.

2. Poster presentations (to be shown during the poster session). You will be asked for:

• Author information
• The title
• An abstract (of not more than 300 words)
• An abbreviated abstract (of not more than 500 characters) for inclusion in the program
• 3-5 keywords

3. Colloquiums (papers that are thematically, topically, or methodologically linked together and fit into a 2 hour and 15 minute time-slot). You will be asked for:

• Author information
• The title of colloquium
• The abstract for the colloquium (of not more than 300 words)
• An abbreviated abstract (of not more than 500 characters) for the colloquium, for inclusion in the program
• In the pdf document you upload to the system, include the following regarding the colloquium's content:
  • Information about the organization of the colloquium (use of time, including for papers, any opening/closing remarks, discussant comments, Q&A period)
  • For each paper, the title and abstract (of not more than 300 words), along with an abbreviated abstract (of not more than 500 characters) for inclusion in the program.

AUTHOR POLICIES:

Participants may be the sole author or the first author for no more than one abstract. However, there is no limit to the number of co-authored abstracts one may submit, or to the number of panel sessions an individual may participate in.

We hope you can join us! Please share this call with your networks.

Visit the GURT 2026 website here for more details.