[from our woman in Kununurra, Eva Schultze-Berndt]
This email is a call for expressions of interest in a 5th European Australianist workshop, to be held at the University of Manchester in September 2008.
The suggestions for dates are either of the following:
a) Su/Mo, 14th/15th September. This is adjacent to the LAGB conference in Colchester/Essex from 10-13 Sept; train travel between Colchester and Manchester is about 5 hrs.
b) Fr/Sat, 19th-20th September.
c) Sat/Su, 20th-21st September.
Of course depending on the number of participants we might only need one day. But hopefully many of you will be able to come!
The suggestion for a workshop theme is "Discourse, prosody and information structure in Australian languages". As usual, participants would be free to present papers not related to this theme.
I will be able to apply for a very limited amount of funding towards accommodation and travel costs of students or other participants who are not in full-time employment (success not guaranteed of course). Please indicate if you are interested in participating and belong to this category.
There are cheap flights from various European cities to Manchester (check out Lufthansa, they have some cheap flights too). Another possibility is to travel via Liverpool; there is a good and cheap bus connection between Liverpool airport and Manchester city centre which takes about 1 hr. Travel time from London Euston by train is 2 1/2-4 hrs depending on the day/time and is GBP 60 (EUR 80) return off-peak. It is really not worth travelling via London Stansted though as this adds a lot to the travel time and fare.
Please let me know as soon as possible whether you are interested in participating in principle, and indicate which of the dates (a, b, c) would be possible for you. I will then keep you on the list for future (more definite) announcements. If you already have a title/topic in mind, let me know by all means, but I will also send a separate call later.
Eva Schultze-Berndt e-mail: Eva.Schultze-Berndt At manchester.ac.uk