No words can describe the atrocities commited by the Russian government and army in Ukraine. I don’t know how I can live after what has already happened, and every minute makes it worse. It became almost impossible to breathe, let alone do research. All the more valuable I find initiatives such as the one described below.
Joshua Hartshorne’s email in the sentproc mailing list:
For those of you wishing you could apply your scientific knowledge to the great issues of our day, who realize that your knowledge of psycholinguistics is not going to solve all or even many of our problems, but who would like to still be a tiny part of the solution, this is for you. At the request of colleagues in Ukraine, I am editing a special issue of a Ukrainian psycholinguistics journal. This will cover research broadly relevant to the present conflict, including work on propaganda and disinformation, language learning by refugees, code-switching and affiliation, and many other topics we as a field work on. Please consider whether you have something to contribute to help support this journal during a difficult time. Read on below.
Special issue, call for abstracts: Language & War (East European Journal of Psycholinguistics; https://eejpl.vnu.edu.ua/)
Guest editor: Joshua Hartshorne, Boston College (l3atbc.org)
This special issue will cover psycholinguistic research relevant to war & displacement, understood broadly. Example themes include:
- Disinformation, propaganda, & the pragmatics of believability
- Language learning in refugees
- Effects of stress and PTSD on language & language learning
- The role of political & social conflict on diachronic language evolution
- Code switching and affiliation during military conflict
- The effects of bias, distrust, and social conflict on real-time language processing
Papers need not directly involve the Ukrainian language or Ukrainian refugees, though these are of course particularly welcome and will be given special consideration.
Deadline for abstract submission: June 1, 2022
Invited papers due: August 15, 2022
Submit an abstract approximately one page in length directly to the guest editor at joshua.hartshorne@bc.edu. Both reviews and new experimental studies are welcome. The experimental study need not be complete but must be described in enough detail and be clearly completable well before the full paper deadline. Pre-submission inquiries about topic and fit are welcome.
Papers may be submitted in English or Ukrainian. This is an open access journal with a small publication fee on acceptance (100 Euros; or 90 Euros for authors from low-income countries).