The 8th Workshop on Sino-Tibetan Languages of Southwest China (STLS-8)

The 8th Workshop on Sino-Tibetan Languages of Southwest China (STLS-8) 

11-12 (Friday and Saturday) June 2027  

Department of Chinese Language Studies, Faculty of Humanities, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

1.    Conference Introduction

Inaugurated in 2008, the Workshop on Sino-Tibetan Languages of Southwest China (STLS) is a prestigious biennial international academic series dedicated to the advancement of research on Sino-Tibetan and neighbouring language families in Southwest China. Over 18 years, STLS has been held across top institutions in Taipei, Beijing, Paris, Seattle, Tianjin, Kobe and Shanghai.

Serving as a core international exchange platform for linguistic typology, contact linguistics, historical linguistics, and endangered language documentation in the Sino-Tibetan domain, STLS has gathered leading scholars and emerging researchers worldwide, forming an academic community with high international impact.

The 8th Workshop on Sino-Tibetan Languages of Southwest China (STLS-8) will be hosted by the Department of Chinese Language Studies, Faculty of Humanities, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po Campus, Hong Kong, on June 11-12, 2027. The conference welcomes original, high-quality studies addressing key theoretical and empirical issues of Sino-Tibetan languages and adjacent linguistic varieties.

Registration is free of charge.

2. Conference venue: 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po Campus, The Education University of Hong Kong

3. Conference Themes

We invite submissions covering all core research areas of Sino-Tibetan varieties and neighboring languages, with a focus on the minority languages. Recommended topics include, but are not limited to:

•    Phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics
•    Historical comparative linguistics
•    Historical evolution and phylogeny
•    Language contact, areal typology, and sprachbund phenomena
•    Interdisciplinary approaches to Sino-Tibetan languages
•    Tibeto-Burman paleography with systematic evidence

4. Presentation Mode

STLS-8 adopts a full plenary session mode without parallel sessions, ensuring in-depth academic communication among all participants. All presentations will be delivered in person; there will be no virtual presentations. Two presentation categories are available:
    Oral Presentation: 20-minute oral presentations followed by 15-minute open discussion
    PhD Poster Presentation: open globally to doctoral students, during the break sessions of the oral presentations

5. Working language of the conference: abstracts and presentations must be in English.

6. Important Dates
•    Abstract Submission Deadline: 31 December 2026
•    Notification of Acceptance: 15 February 2027 
•    Confirmation of participation: 31 March 2027
•    Conference Dates: 11-12 June 2027

7. Submission Guidelines
1.    Abstracts must be written in English, with a length of 400 to 800 words (excluding references).
2.    Each participant is welcome to submit up to one single-authored abstract and one co-authored abstract.
3.    All submissions will undergo double-blind peer review by the STLS-8 scientific committee.
4.    Your research must be original and not be published in other conferences or journals by the time of submission.
5.    Please submit your abstract via: the submission link will be ready soon.

8. Contact
For inquiries, please contact the STLS-8 organizing team: 
Ding Hongdi (hding@eduhk.hk) and Liao Hanbo (hliao@eduhk.hk)

9. Other information
Information regarding local transportation, accommodation, and campus maps will be provided in due course. 

The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.