The Historical Sociolinguistics Network (HiSoN) was founded at the University of Bristol in 2005. To travel directly to our main webpage in Salzburg click here.

This network is an informal gathering of scholars with a common interest in historical sociolinguistics. It consists of a mailing list with some 350 academics from across the world (to subscribe, click here), a dedicated webpage hosted by the University of Salzburg (Germany), and regular activities such as conferences, workshops, and summer schools. It has received external funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) as a Scientific Network and repeated support from the University of Bristol (UK), the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), the University of Agder (Norway) and the University of Augsburg (Germany). In 2012, we launched two book series Historical Sociolinguistics - Studies on Language and Society in the Past published by Peter Lang (Oxford) and Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics with John Benjamins. 

Major Activities, 2005-2015

2015 9th HiSoN Summer School in Metochi, Lesbos, Greece (Aug 1-8), organised by Gijsbert Rutten (Leiden) and Wim Vandenbussche (VU Brussel)

2014 Workshop on Historical Handwritings, Bristol (Nov 7-8), organised by Anna Havinga & Markus Schiegg

2014 8th HiSoN Summer School in Agder, Kristiansand, Norway (July 27-Aug 3)

2014 Conference: Mobility, variability and changing literacies in modern times (June 11-13), Utrecht university, organised by Anita Auer (Utrecht) und Mikko Laitinen (Linnaeus University)

2014 Conference: Historical Discourses on Language and Power (Feb 6-8), University of Sheffield, organised by Kristine Horner, Catharina Peersman & Susan Fitzmaurice

2013 Conference - Humboldtkolleg: Invisible Languages in the 19th century (Sept 25-27), University of Bristol, organised by Nils Langer; with the generous support of the Alexander-von-Humboldt foundation.

2013 7th HiSoN Summer School in Metochi, Lesbos, Greece (August 3-10)

2012 Launch of a book series Historical Sociolinguistics - Studies on Language and Society in the Past published by Peter Lang (Oxford), general editors Nils Langer (Bristol), Stephan Elspass (Salzburg), Joseph Salmons (UW Madison), Wim Vandenbussche (VU Brussel)

2012 Launch of book series Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics, published by John Benjamins (Amsterdam), general editors Marijke van der Wal (Leiden) and Terttu Nevalainen (Helsinki).

2012 6th HiSoN Summer School in/on/surrounded by Lake Chiemsee, Germany (August 9-16) (principal organisers: Simon Pickl and Stephan Elspass (Augsburg)

2011 5th HiSoN Summer School in Metochi, Lesbos, Greece (August 20-27) (principal organisers: Nils Langer (Bristol) and Wim Vandenbussche (VU Brussel))

2011 Conference: Touching the Past: (Ego) documents in a Linguistic and Historical Perspective, Universiteit Leiden, The Netherlands. Call for Papers here. (principal organisers Gijsbert Rutten and Marijke van der Wal (Leiden))

2010 4th HiSoN Summer School in Bruges/Brugge in Belgium (August 9-16) (principal organiser: Wim Vandenbussche (VU Brussel)

2009 3rd HiSoN Summer School in Metochi, Lesbos, Greece (August 20-27) (principal organisers: Nils Langer (Bristol) and Wim Vandenbussche (VU Brussel))

2009 Conference on Language and History, Linguistics and Historiography, University of Bristol, UK; proceedings edited by N. Langer, S. Davies & W. Vandenbussche and published by Peter Lang (Oxford) in 2012.

2008 Exploratory workshop on the Interdisciplinarity of Language Studies and Historical Studies, University of Bristol, UK

2008 2nd HiSoN Summer School at the University of Bristol, UK (principal organiser: Nils Langer (Bristol)

2007 1st HiSoN Summer School in Metochi, Lesbos, Greece (principal organisers: Nils Langer (Bristol) and Wim Vandenbussche (VU Brussel))

2006 Conference on The Future of Historical Sociolinguistics, Brugge, Belgium (principal organiser: Wim Vandenbussche (VU Brussel))

2005 Conference on Language Histories from Below, University of Bristol, organised by Nils Langer, proceedings edited by S. Elspass, N. Langer, J. Scharloth, and W. Vandenbussche and published by Walter de Gruyter in 2007.