Co-hosted by the Department of Linguistics at SFU and the University of Victoria, NWAV - New Ways of Analyzing Variation - 45 takes place November 3 - 6, 2016, at SFU Harbor Centre in Vancouver. 

Vancouver sits in the heart of the Pacific Northwest rainforest, founded on the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. From its establishment, and especially over the last two decades, Vancouver has grown by embracing immigrants from a wide range of countries, who formed vibrant communities of their own. Like the plants of the rainforest that surrounds them, Vancouver’s communities remain strong by spreading their roots in the sociolinguistic ecosystem of the city.

In the process, they come into contact, collaborate, compete, and give shape to a region that is the site of rich cultural and linguistic variation, historically and currently. Co-hosted by Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria, NWAV 45 will highlight the ways in which communities and individuals shape their identities through language variation and change.

SFU's own Dr. Donna Gerts will lead a roundtable discussion on Small language—big differences: Variation and change in a Coast Salish language  and Dr. Marianne Ignace will speak on Why First Nations Languages Matter and What is at Stake: Addressing and Reversing the Impact of Cultural Genocide on Indigenous Languages in British Columbia.

For more information and registration, please visit the NWAV 45 website.