Conferences of the SCL welcome and encourage the participation of scholars, students, educators, writers, and the general public. Sessions include presentations, workshops, colloquia, poster sessions, and plenary addresses. The conferences provide many informal and meaningful opportunities for linguistic discussion. Conferences are held every two years, and have been held in all the UWI campus territories (Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago), as well as in Aruba, the Bahamas, Belize, Curaçao, Dominica, Guyana, St. Lucia, St. Maarten and Suriname.
The 2010 conference will be held in Barbados, hosted by the Cave Hill campus of The University of the West Indies.
1976: 1st SCL Conference held in Guyana under the theme "New Directions in Creole Studies"
1978: 2nd Biennial Conference held in Barbados under the theme "Semantics, Lexicography and Creole Studies"
1980: 3rd Biennial Conference held in Aruba (themes included "Redefining Creole Studies," "the Social History of Caribbean Languages," "Non-creole Caribbean Languages," and "Extending the Use of Vernacular Languages in the Caribbean")
1982: 4th Biennial Conference held in Suriname under the theme "New and Old Languages in the Caribbean"
1984: 5th Biennial Conference held in Jamaica under the theme "Synchronic and Diachronic Aspects of Language"
1986: 6th Biennial Conference held in Trinidad & Tobago, jointly with the American Dialect Society, under the theme "Approaches to Syntactic and Semantic Description in Creole Languages and Similar Situations"
1988: 7th Biennial Conference held in the Bahamas
1990: 8th Biennial Conference held in Belize
1992: 9th Biennial Conference held in Barbados under the theme "Caribbean Linguistics at the Crossroads"
1994: 10th Biennial Conference held in Guyana, jointly with the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, under the theme "Continuity and Change in the Study of Creole Languages and Society"
1996: 11th Biennial Conference held in St. Maarten under the theme "Caribbean Languages: Theory and Social Practice"
1998: 12th Biennial Conference held in St. Lucia under the theme "Expanding the Horizons of Caribbean Language Research"
2000: 13th Biennial Conference held in Jamaica under the theme "Caribbean Linguistics: Past, Present and Future"
2002: 14th Biennial Conference held in Trinidad & Tobago under the theme "Caribbean Linguistics: Theory and Application"
2004: The 15th Biennial Conference was held in Curaçao from 11 to 15 August 2004 as a joint meeting with the SPCL (Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics - publisher of the JPCL, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages), and the ACBLPE (Associação de Crioulos de Base Lexical Portuguesa e Espanhola/Asociación de Criollos de Base Lexical Portuguesa e Española). The focus of the conference was on Papiamentu, and the conference was held in the World Trade Center in Willemstad. Special tribute was paid to SCL Past President and Honorary Member Dennis R. Craig (d. 2004). Click here for the pdf version of the conference programme. Click here for thumbnail photos of the conference. See also these pages for more information in English, in het Nederlands, en français, and en español.
2006: The 16th biennial conference was held in honour of Douglas Taylor in Dominica from 2 to 6 August 2006. The theme of the conference was "Caribbean Language Studies and Educational Development". Click here for the pdf version of the conference programme.
2008: The 17th biennial conference was held in Cayenne, French Guyana from 28 to 31 July 2008. The theme of the conference was "Usage, application and development of the languages of the Caribbean and the Guianas." Click here for the
Conference Programme. The conference was preceded by the Pre-Conference APiCS Workshop. The 2008 conference followed the inaugural session of the Caribbean Language and Linguistics Institute hosted from 30 June to 25 July 2008 at the Mona campus of The University of the West Indies in Jamaica.
