Twenty Years of IALSP: Past,Present,and Future

This year, the International Association of Language and Social Psychology (IALSP) celebrates its 20th anniversary. Although officially founded in 1997, the story of IALSP began nearly two decades earlier. In 1979, Howard Giles and W. Peter Robinson convened the first International Conference on Language and Social Psychology (ICLASP) in Bristol, England, to highlight emerging work in the area of language and social psychology (LSP). Shortly after, in 1982, the Journal of Language and Social Psychology (JLSP) was launched, and it quickly became an internationally recognized forum for research in this area (Gasiorek, Giles, Holtgraves, & Robbins, 2012; Giles, 2012). The inaugural ICLASP conference in Bristol and subsequent conferences in 1984, 1987, 1991, and 1994, as well as burgeoning work on LSP and the rising prominence of the JLSP, highlighted the need to form an association dedicated to the study of LSP. In response, the conveners and participants at ICLASP6 in Ottawa, Canada, officially founded IALSP.

Since its creation, the primary purpose of IALSP has been to promote LSP scholarship and ensure the continuity and development of the ICLASP conferences, which have been biennial since 2000. Initially, IALSP’s Executive Board consisted of a President, Treasurer, and Regional Representatives. However, in order to meet the needs of an ever-growing association, it has since expanded to also include a Secretary, Communications Officer, Publications Officer, and Student Representatives (www.ialsp.org). IALSP and the JLSP have had a close relationship from the start and formalized their association in 2008. Today, this “trifecta” (Giles, 2012) of an internationally recognized publication outlet (JLSP), biennial conferences (ICLASP), and an active and dedicated membership (IALSP) remains as strong and vibrant as ever.

Under the proactive leadership of 10 different presidents, IALSP’s membership has steadily grown over the past two decades. It currently consists of well over 200 scholars spanning 24 countries and 4 continents, making it a truly international organization. Indeed, this global representation extends to IALSP’s current Executive Officers who alone represent no less than 8 countries and 4 continents between them. This diversity notwithstanding, the majority of IALSP’s current members do come from North America, Australia, and Western Europe, with other areas of the world either underrepresented (e.g., Eastern Europe, Middle East) or not represented at all (i.e., Africa, South America). Thus, an important goal for IALSP in the coming years is not only to continue its growth but also to further internationalize its membership base.

Several factors have the potential to contribute to these efforts. First, it is important that ICLASP conferences continue to be accessible, both geographically and financially, to current and future members. Toward this end, IALSP has made efforts to rotate its biennial conferences from one area of the world to the next (e.g., ICLASP13 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands; ICLASP14 in Honolulu, Hawaii; ICLASP15 in Bangkok, Thailand) and has maintained a tiered conference registration payment system. It is important these practices continue. Second, over the years IALSP has forged successful relationships with other academic organizations, including the International Communication Association (ICA) and the Asian Association of Social Psychology (AASP). These affiliations have helped increase IALSP’s visibility and attract new members from different areas. Finally, the continued growth and internationalization of IALSP in the coming years depends as much on the organization’s current members as it does on the association’s policies. Indeed, IALSP’s dedicated and passionate members are its best ambassadors and their outreach to potential new members—along with the outreach done by IALSP’s Regional Representatives—is critical to the organization’s continued success.

Since its founding, one of the primary purposes of IALSP has been to organize and ensure the continuity of the ICLASP conferences. The great success of past ICLASP conferences is testament to the organization’s success in this area. However, in order to completely fulfill its mission of promoting LSP scholarship, IALSP also needs to engage its members between the biennial conferences. To this end, over the years (and especially recently), a number of initiatives have been undertaken with the aim of promoting member engagement and increasing member collaboration and retention. These efforts include establishing an IALSP website and blog (www.ialsp.org), launching an IALSP Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ialsp), collating members’ recent publications and promoting members’ work on social media via monthly focus publications, and regularly distributing an organizational newsletter. IALSP also regularly sponsors panels at the ICA and AASP conferences to highlight emerging work on LSP. Together, these initiatives not only promote collaboration and connections among IALSP’s current members but also help increase the organization’s visibility to a wider audience. Supporting these initiatives in the coming years, as well as the establishing new ones, is sure to contribute to the continued vitality of IALSP.

The questions, issues, and problems that IALSP scholars tackle in their research are as relevant today as they were 20 years ago. Indeed, IALSP’s focus on LSP continues to fill an important niche that is beyond the main purview of any other academic organization, past or present. This places IALSP—as an internationally recognized academic organization—in a unique position to advance social justice on topics related to LSP. One important way in which IALSP supports emerging work on LSP topics of social significance is by sponsoring biennial Task Forces. Initiated in 2000, the goal of these Task Forces is to identify an important and challenging issue on LSP and bring together a group of scholars to examine current research trends and limitations in that topic area. Past Task Force topics include language and discrimination, endangered languages, language in health communication, and science communication, among others. The members of each Task Force spend 2 years exploring their topic and present their findings at the following ICLASP conference. Corresponding papers, in turn, frequently appear as Colloquy or Special Issues in the JLSP (for a summary, see Giles, 2012). While the output arising from these Task Forces successfully reaches academic audiences, its dissemination to the general public—where it may perhaps have its greatest impact—remains a challenge (as is the case with much social scientific research).

Another way in which IALSP supports emerging LSP work is by recognizing members’ research through several biennial awards, each named in honor of influential LSP scholars. These include the James J. Bradac Award, recognizing significant contributions to LSP scholarship by early career members; the Robert C. Gardner Award, recognizing outstanding research on topics related to second/foreign language acquisition and bilingualism; and the Tamar Murachver Award, recognizing outstanding LSP research by student members. Given the social import of LSP work—arising from IALSP Task Forces, as well as members’ individual research—identifying innovative ways to promote and disseminate LSP research to the public, and help this work enter public discourse is an important task for IALSP in the future. Indeed, IALSP scholars have much to say about the role of language in society; one need only glance at the most recent list of members’ publications to see the incredible body of research IALSP scholars produce (www.ialsp.org). Their voices need to be heard beyond academia.

IALSP’s warm, passionate, and inclusive members are its best asset and the reason IALSP has continued to thrive since its founding two decades ago. Please join us at ICLASP16 in Edmonton, Canada, in 2018, as we usher in the next decade of IALSP and LSP scholarship.