Conference Series

DiPVaC 7, 23rd-25th September 2026

University of Salzburg, Austria

The conference theme was 'Interfaces' - research intersecting variationist approaches with other research traditions was particularly encouraged.

Local organisers: Erik Schleef, Jana Pflaeging, Matthew Hadodo, Evelyn N. Roth and Sabrina Ryffel.

Plenary speakers: Miriam Meyerhoff ((with Madeleine Riskin-Kutz), University of Oxford UK), Emma Moore (University of Sheffield, UK), John A. Bateman (University of Bremen, Germany), Gunther Kaltenböck (University of Graz, Austria) and Scott F. Kiesling (University of Pittsburgh, USA). 

Winner of the Best Student Paper Prize: Tanne Stephens (Kiel University, Germany) for her presentation "Exploring regional politeness in U.S. English: Strategies and perceptions". 

DiPVaC 6, 12th-14th June 2024

Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary (Budapest, Hungary) 

The conference was called 'Changing Discourses - Aspects of Linguistic, Social and Discourse Variation' and was held in cooperation with DiscourseNet and DiPVaC.

Local organisers: Péter Furkó, Csilla Dér, Nóra Csontos, Beáta Kiltz, Mónika Pagony and Virág Zombory. 

Plenary speakers: Chloé Diskin-Holdaway​ (The University of Melbourne, Australia), Miklós Kontra (Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary) and Manfred Stede (Universität Potsdam, Germany). 

Winner of the Best Student Paper Prize: Ben Gibb-Reid (University of York, UK) for his presentation "Creating a functional taxonomy of discourse-pragmatic yeah using inter-rater reliability" (see second photo below).

DiPVaC 5, 14th-16th December 2021 

The University of Melbourne (Australia), hybrid format

In total there were 293 registered attendees, 29 talks, 4 plenaries and 2 workshops. Conference talks were recorded and made available on an online platform. All talks were also live-streamed with live Q&As held across in-person and Zoom audiences.

Local organiser: Chloé Diskin-Holdaway​

Plenary speakers: Derek Denis (University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada), Janet Holmes (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand), Celeste Rodríguez Louro & Glenys Collard (The University of Western Australia), and Lesley Stirling (The University of Melbourne) & Ilana Mushin (The University of Queensland). 

Workshops were held by Alexandra D'Arcy (University of Victoria, Canada) and Mirjam Eiswirth (University of Duisberg-Essen, Germany)

Winner of the Best Student Paper Prize: Paloma Cardoso (Federal University of Sergipe, Brazil) for her presentation "Linguistic, acoustic and facial gestures effects in the inference of the meanings indicated by "(eu) acho que"".

DiPVaC 4, 28th-30th May 2018 

University of Helsinki, Finland

Local organiser: Elizabeth Peterson​

Plenary speakers: Yael Maschler (University of Haifa, Israel), Terttu Nevalainen (University of Helsinki, Finland), Jan-Ola Östman (University of Helsinki, Finland) and Heike Pichler (Newcastle University, UK). 

Winner of the Best Student Paper Prize: Mirjam Eiswirth (University of Edinburgh, UK) for her presentation "Listener responses as a discourse-organizational variable". 

DiPVaC3, 4th-6th May 2026

University of Ottawa, Canada

Local organiser: Stephen Levey​

Plenary speakers: Laurel Brinton (University of British Columbia, Canada), Gaétane Dostie (Université de Sherbrooke, Canada), Shana Poplack (University of Ottawa, Canada) and Suzanne Evans Wagner (Michigan State University, USA). 

Winner of the Best Student Paper Prize: Claire Childs (Newcastle University, UK - now University of York, UK) for her presentation "Interviewer effects on negative tag realisations in North-East England".

DiPVaC2, 7th-9th April 2014

Newcastle University, UK

Local organiser: Heike Pichler​

Plenary speakers: Liesbeth Degand (University of Louvain, Belgium), Stephen Levey (University of Ottawa, Canada), and Sali Tagliamonte (University of Toronto, Canada). 

Ashley Hesson (Michigan State University, USA) and Heike Pichler (Newcastle University, UK) also gave a workshop on "Exploring novel impact pathways in variationist research: Discourse variation in healthcare settings." See the conference website for further details.

Winner of the Best Student Paper Prize: Chloé Diskin (University College Dublin, Ireland - now Chloé Diskin-Holdaway, University of Melbourne) for her presentation "Acquisition of discourse-pragmatic markers by non-native speakers of Irish English". 

DiPVaC1, 18th-20th April 2012

University of Salford, UK

Local organiser: Heike Pichler​

Plenary speakers: Kate Beeching (University of West of England, UK), Jenny Cheshire (Queen Mary, University of London, UK), Alexandra D'Arcy (University of Victoria, Canada) and Andreas H. Jucker (University of Zurich, Switzerland)

DiPVaC1 also featured an 'Analysing Spoken English' workshop for A-Level English Language teachers which was designed by Sue Fox (Queen Mary, University of London) and Heike Pichler (Newcastle University, UK). 

DiPVaC1 photos below are courtesy of Gerry Howley.