THE GLOCAL 2026
THE CONFERENCE ON GLOBAL
LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

AI
ANTHROPOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE

WELCOME

The (SCOPUS / ISI) GLOCAL 2026, the GLOCAL Worldwide Conference on Linguistic SocioCultural Anthropology, Sociolinguistics, and Language and Society, in October 2026, at Cambridge University and online, as a hybrid event, symbolizes a significant leap forward, and a marked shift in direction, for Linguistic SocioCultural Anthropology, from all GLOCAL conferences over the past two decades. This shift is mediated by the problematizing of perspectives and praxis in a plurality of fields central to and peripheral to Linguistic and Cultural Anthropology, the social and cultural psychologies of language.

Conceptualized in 1998, the GLOCAL conferences respond to concerns by scholars within Linguistics, Anthropology, Sociolinguistics, Sociology, Cultural Studies, centrally Linguistic Anthropology, and beyond, to bridge the gap between a focus on groundbreaking scholarship on these fields and to scaffold access to this scholarship by noteworthy scholars globally. This gap is mostly due to issues of funding, expertise, and limited access and exposure to strong institutions and their academics.

The (SCOPUS / WoS / ISI) GLOCAL 2026, themed AI, Anthropological Intelligence, will build on these efforts to reduce such hegemony and the neoliberal gap, to connect  universities and their academics across the globe, with one another and with industry and society. Here, the GLOCAL 2026, as with all other past GLOCAL conferences, will opportune academics to exchange knowledge, expertise, and valuable Linguistic, Anthropological, and Technological data, through the interpersonal and inter-institutional networks that the GLOCAL and its conferences have built thus far. To ground these efforts, the GLOCAL 2026, with its global network of 4,500 universities at the centre, will continue to develop its network of institutions globally, to support these post-neoliberal global efforts.

Alll papers submitted to and accepted for the conference proceedings will be stringently reviewed and then indexed by SCOPUS and Clarivate, and published in high impact publications, in its journals, and elsewhere.

We thus welcome you to the GLOCAL 2026, the Annual Global Conference on Linguistic SocioCultural Anthropology, Sociolinguistics, and Language and Society, at Cambridge University, and online, as a hybrid event, and to the GLOCAL as a whole.

GLOCAL Central Committee

Secretary

Asmah Haji Omar (University of Malaysia, Malaysia)

Central Steering Committee

Alice Rudge (University of London, U.K.)
Anna Luisa Daigneault (Living Tongues Institute, U.S.A.)
Bert Vaux (Cambridge University, England)
David Parkin (Oxford University, U.K.)
Geoffrey Benjamin (Nanyang T. University, Singapore)
Gregory Anderson (Living Tongues Institute, U.S.A.)
Janet Watson (University of Leeds, U.K.)
Judith Pine (Western Washington University, U.S.A.)
Katia Pizzi (University of London, U.K.)
Mark Aldenderfer (University of California, Merced, U.S.A.)
Miguel Pérez-Milans (University College London, U.K.)
Richard Baxstrom (University of Edinburgh, U.K.)
Riitta Valijarvi (University College London, U.K.)
Sylvia Jaworska (University of Reading, U.K.)
Trevor H J Marchand (University of London, U.K.)
Vijay Bhatia (City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
William A. Foley (Columbia University, U.S.A.)
Pavlos Kavouras (EKPA, Greece)

Communications

Nhan Huynh, Head of Communications
Anastasia Tsantes (Communications Assistant)
Samantha Emery (Communications Assistant)
Brett Green (Legal Counsel U.S.A.)
Colin Cavendish-Jones (Legal Counsel U.K.)

DESCRIPTION

The (SCOPUS / ISI) GLOCAL Conference on Linguistic Socio-Cultural Anthropology 2026, themed AI, Anthropological Intelligence, is timely. The conference and its theme will bring together linguistic and sociocultural anthropologists, and scholars and experts of technology, social planning, philosophy, sociology, cultural studies, critical theorists, as well as governments, and industry forerunners, to deliberate on the tensions between anthropological and artificial intelligence, and solutions that pervade current humanity.

The global expansion of soft and hard technologies, centrally Artificial Intelligence, has problematized the ontological realities of humanity, the increasing socialization of humanity into these technologies, the mechanized subjugations of humanity to generative automation, and the capacity of the human beyond that of generative artificial intelligence, within and beyond the realm of communication.

This unprecedented technological eruption and engulfment of humanity have forced attention to how we as humans must negotiate our discursive and interactive capacities with and through these technologies. Reactions have been complex: Fear, uncertainty and trepidation, attempts to align with yet capitalize on new technologies, concern with current and future securities, deliberation on the survival of humanity, a retraining of humanity to compete with these technologies and to hence ameliorate fears of redundancy of the human, a rethinking of human evolution and its ontology vis-à-vis intelligent technologies, and efforts to ensure that the capacities of the human continue to exceed those of artificial intelligence. However, a central response has been a patent shift in processes of human communication with and through these intelligent technologies.

At the core of these discursive linkages between the human and technology is the anthropological question of how language and the social and cultural psychologies of these technologies overlap, that is, how shall the human subject now communicatively position themselves in relation to these technologies. The pathways to address this anthropological question include the following.

  • Understanding the interactions and intersubjectivities of the human with and through emerging technologies
  • Describing the purposes and legitimacies of interaction between the human and generative technologies
  • Defining the purpose of technologies as devices that mediate human interaction and functional human existence
  • Envisaging new possibilities through which technologies such as ChatGPT can mediate human interaction and purpose, not least of which are language, linguistics, communication, and the maintenance of semiotics that pervade human processes
  • Negotiating the semiotics of these new technologies in (post)structural relation to the human
  • Investigating the technologically mediated potentialities of the interactions of humans, as sentient-sapient beings
  • Anthropological Intelligence
  • Anthropological Linguistics
  • Applied Sociolinguistics
  • Buddhist Studies and Discourses
  • Cognitive Anthropology and Language
  • Critical Linguistic Anthropology
  • Discourses of Religion and Spirituality
  • Ethnographic Language Work
  • Ethnography of Communication
  • Ethnomusicology
  • General Sociolinguistics
  • Islamic Studies and Discourses
  • Language, Community, Ethnicity
  • Language Contact and Change
  • Language, Dialect, Sociolect, Genre
  • Language Documentation
  • Language, Gender, Sexuality
  • Language Ideologies
  • Language and Migration
  • Discourse in Political Apparatus
  • Language and Culture as Tangible and Intangible Heritage
  • Language, Anthropology, and Pedagogy
  • Language: Material and Immaterial
  • Language Minorities and Majorities
  • Language Revitalization
  • Language in Real and Virtual Spaces
  • Language Socialization
  • Language and Spatiotemporal Frames
  • Multifunctionality
  • Narrative and Metanarrative
  • Nonverbal Semiotics
  • Pedagogical Anthropology
  • Poetics
  • Performativity
  • Post-Structuralism and Language
  • Semiotics and Semiology
  • Shamanism and Language
  • Social Psychology of Language
  • Text, Context, Entextualization
  • Lyrical and Non-Lyrical Ethnomusicology
  • Medical Discourse and Anthropology
  • The Chronotope in Language
  • The Discourse of New Technologies

CHRONOTOPE

Chronology

2026 Call for Abstracts
Opens: September 15, 2025
Closes: March 15, 2026
 
Notification of Acceptance
Within one month of submission. For specific or acceptance letters, early submissions are advised.
 
Registration
Early Bird: Ends June 31, 2026
Middle Bird: Ends August 15, 2026
Late Bird: Ends September 5, 2026
 
Conference Dates
Day 1: Wednesday, November 18, 2026
Day 2: Thursday, November 19, 2026
Day 3: Friday, November 20, 2026
Day 4: Saturday, November 21, 2026 – Full day optional Anthro Excursion

Location

Cambridge University

The GLOCAL 2026 Conference will be hybrid, online and at Cambridge University, and at times clusters of scholars will gather in universities at various locations globally in order to interact in real spaces. While all global networks will be invited to physically attend the GLOCAL 2026 at the University of Cambridge as a physical component to the conference, these places will be limited, will incur additional costs, and will be contingent on several factors. The GLOCAL 2026 conference attendance at the University of Cambridge will be of a select group of scholars who will also engage in roundtable discussions, but who will appear in all respective online meetings. The Cambridge physical component will be core to the global interactivity of the conference.

Global University Locations

The GLOCAL 2026 will also allow for limited participation at various locations globally, at which, participants may participate in physical collaborative environments. As with attendance at Cambridge University, attendance at each of the physical locations will incur an additional cost.

VIrtual Participation

The majority of global participants will logically attend the GLOCAL 2026 virtually. Owing to geographical factors and time zones, participants may optimize their attendance by virtually participating at those times that best suit their schedules and lifeworlds.

Anthropological Excursion

  • Avebury Ston Circle
  • Stonhenge
  • Silbury Hill
  • West Kennet Long Barrow
  • Colchester Castle

PROGRAM

See Program
SPONSORS
See Sponsors

SUBMISSION

Proposals are accepted for the following categories.

General colloquia themed sessions
Reserach poster methodology workshops
Analysis workshops
Keynote talk presentations
Plenary talk presentations
Anthropological exhibitions
Cultural performances
Physical banners and displays
Virtual displays and communication
Proceedings publications
Journal special issues
Cultural narrative telling
Anthro debate

REGISTRATION

Assurance

The Steering Committee seeks to ensure participation of all attenees, urging early registration as the event willl have a limited capacity.

Deadline

5 September 2026, following which, registration will not guarantee a place in the conference.

Concession

The registrant’s institution must currently or potentially affliate with the GLOCAL (to organize affiliation contact communications@glocal-consortium.link).

Coverage

Physial attendance fees cover full participation, all documentation, food and refreshments, networking opportunities, training and workshops, reception/gala dinner, and designated accommodation.

Confirmation

Registrations are confirmed by email,and should be received prior to further arrangements such as travel. Payment must be made upon confirmation and prior to the GLOCAL 2026 on the conference portal. Participants assume full responsibility for all bank charges and associated exchange rates.

In Person Physical attendance (prices include accommodation onsite)
Registrattion Type
Early Bird
Middle Bird
Late Bird
GLOCAL Non Affiliate (Institutional) Standard
450 £
500 £
550 £
GLOCAL Affiliate (Institutional) Standard
383 £
425 £
468 £
Student + GLOCAL non-Affiliate (Institutional)
360 £
400 £
440 £
Student + GLOCAL Affiliate (Institutional)
338 £
375 £
413 £
Virtual attendance
Registrattion Type
Early Bird
Middle Bird
Late Bird
GLOCAL Non Affiliate (Institutional) Standard
30 £
40 £
60 £
GLOCAL Affiliate (Institutional) Standard
35 £
45 £
55 £
Student + GLOCAL non-Affiliate (Institutional)
30 £
35 £
45 £
Student + GLOCAL Affiliate (Institutional)
25 £
30 £
45 £

THE

GLOCAL

CONFERENCE

ON

LINGUISTIC

ANTHROPOLOGY

2026

AI,

ANTHROPOLOGICAL

INTELLIGENCE

WELCOME

The (SCOPUS / ISI) GLOCAL 2026, the GLOCAL Worldwide Conference on Linguistic SocioCultural Anthropology, Sociolinguistics, and Language and Society, in October 2026, at Cambridge University and online, as a hybrid event, symbolizes a significant leap forward, and a marked shift in direction, for Linguistic SocioCultural Anthropology, from all GLOCAL conferences over the past two decades. This shift is mediated by the problematizing of perspectives and praxis in a plurality of fields central to and peripheral to Linguistic and Cultural Anthropology, the social and cultural psychologies of language.

Conceptualized in 1998, the GLOCAL conferences respond to concerns by scholars within Linguistics, Anthropology, Sociolinguistics, Sociology, Cultural Studies, centrally Linguistic Anthropology, and beyond, to bridge the gap between a focus on groundbreaking scholarship on these fields and to scaffold access to this scholarship by noteworthy scholars globally. This gap is mostly due to issues of funding, expertise, and limited access and exposure to strong institutions and their academics.

The (SCOPUS / WoS / ISI) GLOCAL 2026, themed AI, Anthropological Intelligence, will build on these efforts to reduce such hegemony and the neoliberal gap, to connect  universities and their academics across the globe, with one another and with industry and society. Here, the GLOCAL 2026, as with all other past GLOCAL conferences, will opportune academics to exchange knowledge, expertise, and valuable Linguistic, Anthropological, and Technological data, through the interpersonal and inter-institutional networks that the GLOCAL and its conferences have built thus far. To ground these efforts, the GLOCAL 2026, with its global network of 4,500 universities at the centre, will continue to develop its network of institutions globally, to support these post-neoliberal global efforts.

Alll papers submitted to and accepted for the conference proceedings will be stringently reviewed and then indexed by SCOPUS and Clarivate, and published in high impact publications, in its journals, and elsewhere.

We thus welcome you to the GLOCAL 2026, the Annual Global Conference on Linguistic SocioCultural Anthropology, Sociolinguistics, and Language and Society, at Cambridge University, and online, as a hybrid event, and to the GLOCAL as a whole.

GLOCAL Central Committee

Secretary

Asmah Haji Omar (University of Malaysia, Malaysia)

Central Steering Committee

Alice Rudge (University of London, U.K.)
Anna Luisa Daigneault (Living Tongues Institute, U.S.A.)
Bert Vaux (Cambridge University, England)
David Parkin (Oxford University, U.K.)
Geoffrey Benjamin (Nanyang T. University, Singapore)
Gregory Anderson (Living Tongues Institute, U.S.A.)
Janet Watson (University of Leeds, U.K.)
Judith Pine (Western Washington University, U.S.A.)
Katia Pizzi (University of London, U.K.)
Mark Aldenderfer (University of California, Merced, U.S.A.)
Miguel Pérez-Milans (University College London, U.K.)
Richard Baxstrom (University of Edinburgh, U.K.)
Riitta Valijarvi (University College London, U.K.)
Sylvia Jaworska (University of Reading, U.K.)
Trevor H J Marchand (University of London, U.K.)
Vijay Bhatia (City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
William A. Foley (Columbia University, U.S.A.)
Pavlos Kavouras (EKPA, Greece)

Communications

Nhan Huynh, Head of Communications
Anastasia Tsantes (Communications Assistant)
Samantha Emery (Communications Assistant)
Brett Green (Legal Counsel U.S.A.)
Colin Cavendish-Jones (Legal Counsel U.K.)

DESCRIPTION

The (SCOPUS / ISI) GLOCAL Conference on Linguistic Socio-Cultural Anthropology 2026, themed AI, Anthropological Intelligence, is timely. The conference and its theme will bring together linguistic and sociocultural anthropologists, and scholars and experts of technology, social planning, philosophy, sociology, cultural studies, critical theorists, as well as governments, and industry forerunners, to deliberate on the tensions between anthropological and artificial intelligence, and solutions that pervade current humanity.

The global expansion of soft and hard technologies, centrally Artificial Intelligence, has problematized the ontological realities of humanity, the increasing socialization of humanity into these technologies, the mechanized subjugations of humanity to generative automation, and the capacity of the human beyond that of generative artificial intelligence, within and beyond the realm of communication.

This unprecedented technological eruption and engulfment of humanity have forced attention to how we as humans must negotiate our discursive and interactive capacities with and through these technologies. Reactions have been complex: Fear, uncertainty and trepidation, attempts to align with yet capitalize on new technologies, concern with current and future securities, deliberation on the survival of humanity, a retraining of humanity to compete with these technologies and to hence ameliorate fears of redundancy of the human, a rethinking of human evolution and its ontology vis-à-vis intelligent technologies, and efforts to ensure that the capacities of the human continue to exceed those of artificial intelligence. However, a central response has been a patent shift in processes of human communication with and through these intelligent technologies.

At the core of these discursive linkages between the human and technology is the anthropological question of how language and the social and cultural psychologies of these technologies overlap, that is, how shall the human subject now communicatively position themselves in relation to these technologies. The pathways to address this anthropological question include the following.

  • Understanding the interactions and intersubjectivities of the human with and through emerging technologies
  • Describing the purposes and legitimacies of interaction between the human and generative technologies
  • Defining the purpose of technologies as devices that mediate human interaction and functional human existence
  • Envisaging new possibilities through which technologies such as ChatGPT can mediate human interaction and purpose, not least of which are language, linguistics, communication, and the maintenance of semiotics that pervade human processes
  • Negotiating the semiotics of these new technologies in (post)structural relation to the human
  • Investigating the technologically mediated potentialities of the interactions of humans, as sentient-sapient beings
  • Anthropological Intelligence
  • Anthropological Linguistics
  • Applied Sociolinguistics
  • Buddhist Studies and Discourses
  • Cognitive Anthropology and Language
  • Critical Linguistic Anthropology
  • Discourses of Religion and Spirituality
  • Ethnographic Language Work
  • Ethnography of Communication
  • Ethnomusicology
  • General Sociolinguistics
  • Islamic Studies and Discourses
  • Language, Community, Ethnicity
  • Language Contact and Change
  • Language, Dialect, Sociolect, Genre
  • Language Documentation
  • Language, Gender, Sexuality
  • Language Ideologies
  • Language and Migration
  • Discourse in Political Apparatus
  • Language and Culture as Tangible and Intangible Heritage
  • Language, Anthropology, and Pedagogy
  • Language: Material and Immaterial
  • Language Minorities and Majorities
  • Language Revitalization
  • Language in Real and Virtual Spaces
  • Language Socialization
  • Language and Spatiotemporal Frames
  • Multifunctionality
  • Narrative and Metanarrative
  • Nonverbal Semiotics
  • Pedagogical Anthropology
  • Poetics
  • Performativity
  • Post-Structuralism and Language
  • Semiotics and Semiology
  • Shamanism and Language
  • Social Psychology of Language
  • Text, Context, Entextualization
  • Lyrical and Non-Lyrical Ethnomusicology
  • Medical Discourse and Anthropology
  • The Chronotope in Language
  • The Discourse of New Technologies

CHRONOTOPE

Chronology

2026 Call for Abstracts
Opens: September 15, 2025
Closes: March 15, 2026
 
Notification of Acceptance
Within one month of submission. For specific or acceptance letters, early submissions are advised.
 
Registration
Early Bird: Ends June 31, 2026
Middle Bird: Ends August 15, 2026
Late Bird: Ends September 5, 2026
 
Conference Dates
Day 1: Wednesday, November 18, 2026
Day 2: Thursday, November 19, 2026
Day 3: Friday, November 20, 2026
Day 4: Saturday, November 21, 2026 – Full day optional Anthro Excursion

Location

Cambridge University

The GLOCAL 2026 Conference will be hybrid, online and at Cambridge University, and at times clusters of scholars will gather in universities at various locations globally in order to interact in real spaces. While all global networks will be invited to physically attend the GLOCAL 2026 at the University of Cambridge as a physical component to the conference, these places will be limited, will incur additional costs, and will be contingent on several factors. The GLOCAL 2026 conference attendance at the University of Cambridge will be of a select group of scholars who will also engage in roundtable discussions, but who will appear in all respective online meetings. The Cambridge physical component will be core to the global interactivity of the conference.

Global University Locations

The GLOCAL 2026 will also allow for limited participation at various locations globally, at which, participants may participate in physical collaborative environments. As with attendance at Cambridge University, attendance at each of the physical locations will incur an additional cost.

VIrtual Participation

The majority of global participants will logically attend the GLOCAL 2026 virtually. Owing to geographical factors and time zones, participants may optimize their attendance by virtually participating at those times that best suit their schedules and lifeworlds.

Anthropological Excursion

  • Avebury Ston Circle
  • Stonhenge
  • Silbury Hill
  • West Kennet Long Barrow
  • Colchester Castle

PROGRAM

See Program
SPONSORS
See Sponsors

SUBMISSION

Proposals are accepted for the following categories.

General colloquia themed sessions
Reserach poster methodology workshops
Analysis workshops
Keynote talk presentations
Plenary talk presentations
Anthropological exhibitions
Cultural performances
Physical banners and displays
Virtual displays and communication
Proceedings publications
Journal special issues
Cultural narrative telling
Anthro debate

REGISTRATION

Assurance

The Steering Committee seeks to ensure participation of all attenees, urging early registration as the event willl have a limited capacity.

Deadline

5 September 2026, following which, registration will not guarantee a place in the conference.

Concession

The registrant’s institution must currently or potentially affliate with the GLOCAL (to organize affiliation contact communications@glocal-consortium.link).

Coverage

Physial attendance fees cover full participation, all documentation, food and refreshments, networking opportunities, training and workshops, reception/gala dinner, and designated accommodation.

Confirmation

Registrations are confirmed by email,and should be received prior to further arrangements such as travel. Payment must be made upon confirmation and prior to the GLOCAL 2026 on the conference portal. Participants assume full responsibility for all bank charges and associated exchange rates.

Physical attendance
(prices include accommodation onsite)
GLOCAL Non Affiliate (Institutional)
Early Bird
Normal
Late Bird
450 £
500 £
550 £
GLOCAL Affiliate (Institutional)
Early Bird
Normal
Late Bird
383 £
425 £
468 £
Student + GLOCAL non-Affiliate (Institutional)
Early Bird
Normal
Late Bird
360 £
400 £
440 £
Student + GLOCAL Affiliate (Institutional)
Early Bird
Normal
Late Bird
338 £
375 £
413 £
Virtual attendance
GLOCAL Non Affiliate (Institutional)
Early Bird
Normal
Late Bird
30 £
40 £
60 £
GLOCAL Affiliate (Institutional)
Early Bird
Normal
Late Bird
35 £
45 £
55 £
Student + GLOCAL non-Affiliate (Institutional)
Early Bird
Normal
Late Bird
30 £
35 £
45 £
Student + GLOCAL Affiliate (Institutional)
Early Bird
Normal
Late Bird
25 £
30 £
45 £