The 46th annual Conference on African Linguistics will be held March 26-28 at the Ford Alumni Center, hosted by the departments of linguistics and African studies.

The conference was first convened in 1970 and since then has been held every year at sites throughout North America. It is now the most significant international conference on African linguistics.

This year's conference features about 130 papers with participants from about 20 different countries — from Australia to South Africa, Brazil to Sweden — and treats all dimensions of African linguistics.

This year's featured plenary speakers areː

• E. Kweku Osam, who received his doctorate in linguistics at the University of Oregon in 1994. Osam has made his career at the University of Ghana. After serving as a professor and department head in linguistics, he became dean of humanities and then pro-vice chancellor. Osam is a specialist in the syntax of Kwa languages of West Africa and has been a champion of UO study abroad programs in Ghana.
• Lee Bickmore, professor of anthropology and linguistics and department head of anthropology at the State University of New York at Albany. Bickmore is a specialist in African, especially Bantu, tone systems.
• Roderic Casali, associate professor of linguistics at Trinity Western University in British Columbia, Canada. Casali is a specialist in African vowel systems.
• Karsten Legère, professor emeritus at the University of Gothenberg in Sweden. Legère is a specialist in endangered languages of East Africa and their socio-cultural and political contexts.

For more information, visit the conference website