The purpose of the International Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics is "to bring together scholars to share original sociolinguistic research that analyzes Spanish data or data from contact situations between Spanish and other languages."
A wide range of sociolinguistic research studies will be addressed, but the conference commitee gave special consideration to papers on language variation and change, bilingualism, language attitudes, language contact, and Spanish in the US.
There will be two keynote addresses on Friday April 13. The first, by Norma Mendoza-Denton (University of Arizona), is entitled "Norteño and Sureño gangs on YouTube: Localism in California through Spanish accent variation." The second
keynote address is by Carmen Silva-Corvalán (University of Southern California), and is entitled “The Spanish of heritage speakers: From birth to adulthood.”
A sampling of session topics scheduled for the first day of the conference includes: Spanish in contact with other languages; Language atitudes, which will address experiences of speakers of non-presige Spanish and attitudes toward and repression of Spanish California in the nineteenth century; choices surrounding language in the workplace, at the border, in the healthcare system, and in music; and, of course, much more.
The conference will conclude with a plenary address in the Arizona Historical Society-Auditorium. Kathryn Woolard (University of California, San Diego) will discuss “The language politics of a politician’s language in Catalonia.”
On-site registration is available for WSS6. You'll find pertinent information including a detailed program here.