Official announcement by Laura Janda, president ICLA

Dear members of the International Cognitive Linguistics Association and other friends of Cognitive Linguistics,

I have recently been informed that the preparations for the International Cognitive Linguistics Conference in Berkeley in 2009 have reached an impasse and it is necessary to cancel the conference. This cancellation has come about despite sustained and laudable efforts to rescue the situation. However, responsibility for organization of the conference rests with the local organizers, who have made the decision to cancel.

We are at present working on an amended conference schedule over the next three years. We hope to honor the efforts of the hundreds of scholars who submitted abstracts for ICLC 2009 by integrating them into a future conference. Our colleagues in China have graciously offered us the possibility of moving the conference originally planned for 2011 to 2010, and our colleagues Sally Rice and John Newman have tentatively agreed to host the conference in Alberta, Canada in 2012. In addition, there are several alternatives for cognitive linguistic conferences this year, among them AFLiCo May 27-29 (http://www.aflico.fr/colloque.html) , SALC in Stockholm, June 10-12 (http://www.salc-sssk.org) , and the Slavic cognitive linguistics conference, October 15-17 in Prague (http://ucjtk.ff.cuni.cz/sclc/sclc_eng.htm) .

I realize that the cancellation of the ICLC 2009 in Berkeley is terrible news for many of us. The point in sending this message is to inform potential participants as early as possible, before concrete travel plans have been made.

It is important that we all work together toward the future of the ICLA. The current situation presents a challenge for our organization, but I believe that our combined efforts will lead to positive solutions.

I expect to have more information for you shortly. It will be necessary for us to make some important decisions for the ICLA and I appreciate the support of our members at this time.

Laura Janda

President ICLA