Conferences for the History of English
International Conference of English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL) The latest in this series, the 23th, will be held in Milan in June 2026 organised by the Italian society for the history of the English language: SLIN - Storia della Lingua Inglese (this organisation also holds a series of conference on English historical linguistics every two to three years).
Note that this conference has a sister biennial meeting with a very similar name – International Conference of Historical Linguistics (ICHL) – which is also concerned with historical linguistics, but not restricted to the English language.
Studies in the History of English Language (SHEL) The latest in this series, the 14th, will be held in Provo, Utah in April/May 2026.
International Conference on Middle English (ICOME) The latest in this series, the 14th, will be held in Zurich in June 2026.
Late Modern English Conference The latest in this series, the 10th, will be held in Malaga in May 2027.
The International Society for the Study of Early Medieval England (ISSEME) has a biennial conference which was last held in Düsseldorf in 2025.
In addition, there are many conferences which include papers on the history of English. For instance, the International Society for the Linguistics of English (ISLE) holds a series of conference which frequently involves contributions from scholars of the history of English. Furthermore, there are conferences on different levels of languages, such as phonology, syntax, pragmatics, or areas of linguistics, such as lexicography, sociolinguistics or corpus linguistics, in which papers on historical matters are often presented.
For a full list of conferences which deal directly or indirectly with the history of English, please consult the list provided on the following website, maintained by Ayumi Miura (University of Tokyo) at: History of English on the Web.
Reputable conferences will be hosted by a well-known university and have an organising committee consisting of established academics in a field. They will take place at a certain location and there will be several references to them on the internet, e.g. by being announced on the LINGUIST List or the International Society for the Linguistics of English, referred to above.
The main conference on this side of the Atlantic is the following with the second below being that for North America.
Nota bene!
There are now (2026) many predatory websites purporting to manage the hosting of conferences at various venues throughout the world. They work by offering a guarantee of acceptance, and possible publication in proceedings, for a fee up front, which they then keep without delivering the service they promised. Such “conferences” are always offered in digital format; naturally, because they don‘t exist, so be careful. If you want to find out more, in order to be prepared, please go to this webpage: Predatory Websites.
