PCCS meetings provide a forum for high quality papers on a variety of aspects of Celtic Studies, including histories of the Celtic regions, Welsh / Irish / Scottish Gaelic / Manx / Cornish / Breton literatures, Celtic folklore, archaeology, teaching of Celtic languages, and cultures of the Celtic countries.

We also invite papers on sociolinguistics of the Celtic languages. According to Monica Heller, we are currently witnessing the creation of ‘new spaces’ for minorities to express themselves, while producing tensions which exist between the ‘idealized’ monolingual nation state and supranational structures and processes (Heller 1999: 339). While this greater awareness of the ‘minority condition’ is surely to be welcomed, we can nevertheless observe a decrease in the number of opportunities to use many minority languages in what have come to be seen as their traditional domains. This can be interpreted as a cause for regret, since the link between language and identity is such that without a strong (or even symbolic) demographic of minority language speakers, a particular national or regional identity can be perceived as weakened or diluted, both by minority language community members and members of the wider community as well.

The aim of the sociolinguistic aspect of the conference, then, is to explore these tensions and ‘new spaces’ within Celtic sociolinguistics, in particular to ‘locate the discursive spaces and identify what resources are circulating, who has access to them, and what they make of them’ (Heller 2011: 193). What challenges do individual speakers of Celtic languages face, and how are these mirrored and expanded at community level? How are ‘new spaces’ being created for Celtic languages and what sort of resources are being mobilised in order to create them and by whom? How are these new spaces contested or celebrated? In addition to ‘language-as-a-resource’, the focus can include other aspects, such as material culture and cultural heritage as well.

The deadline for proposal submissions is extended to ***28th February 2022***. Please send an abstract – of no more than 350 words plus references, if necessary – to pccs@nullwa.amu.edu… When applying, please state if your paper is for the general Celtic sessions, or the Celtic sociolinguistic sessions. Successful applicants will be notified by 30th March 2022.

Selected papers will also be considered for a post-conference publication in a special issue of a peer-reviewed academic journal Studia Celtica Posnaniensia.