UTSA researcher receives grant to organize international conference during San Antonio’s Tricentennial

UTSA researcher receives grant to organize international conference during San Antonio’s Tricentennial

Conference will bring Tier One linguistics experts from around the world to San Antonio


(September 20, 2016) -- Professor Bridget Drinka in The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Department of English has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to bring more than 300 linguists from around the world to San Antonio next summer.

“It’s a huge honor for UTSA because this conference is only hosted by Tier One universities,” said Drinka. “The conference is about historical linguistics and why and how languages around the globe became the way they are.”

The $20,000 grant will support a panel focusing on endangered languages at next summer’s 23rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Drinka is organizing the conference, which will be hosted by UTSA. The downtown conference is scheduled for July 31, 2017 through August 4, 2017.

The community will be invited to four panels focusing on the linguistic history of San Antonio as part of the city’s Tricentennial celebration commemorating San Antonio’s 300th anniversary.

This initiative entitled ‘Las lenguas de San Antonio a 300 años: Reconstructing the linguistic roots of a multi-cultural city’ will provide an engaging component to the Tricentennial, allowing people to connect to their linguistic past,” said Drinka.

Hundreds of people are expected to take part in workshops and panels throughout the week.

“Some of these people haven’t been to the United States before, and UTSA is hosting these scholars and experts from around the world,” said Drinka. “This puts UTSA on the map in a monumental way.”

Drinka is the President of the International Society for Historical Linguistics. Her research focuses on Indo-European and historical linguistics.

Next semester, Drinka will share her expertise with students by integrating her new book, Language Contact in Europe: The periphrastic perfect through history, as well as work from scholars attending next year’s conference into her courses. Drinka says UTSA graduate students will help plan the conference, which will give them a unique opportunity to network with top researchers in the field.

“This will be a great opportunity for UTSA students and the entire city to understand San Antonio’s history by exploring our linguistic roots,” said Drinka.

- Kara Mireles

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