The University of Massachusetts Amherst

Final details

1. Locations, parking. The Friday tutorial sessions will take place in the third floor of the west wing of Machmer hall, right near the linguistics department in South College (and the Dubois Library, the tallest structure on campus, which is a good orientation point). The closest parking is in the Campus Center lot, which is unfortunately not free ($1.50/hr, max $20). On Saturday and Sunday we’ll be in the Herter auditorium, on the second floor of the Herter annex. Parking is free on the weekend in lots 71 and 32 on Massachusetts Avenue near the Visitor’s Center, right near Herter. Other travel information is available on the travel page. From Logan, there is a Peter Pan bus service to Amherst, but shuttles are required from Bradley. See the travel page, and book in advance. You can find an annotated campus map with all of the conference locations, including parking, here.

 

2. Registration. The conference will start at 9 sharp both Saturday and Sunday, and we won’t have coffee or food available right away. The nearest place to get these are in the Dubois Library, Roots Cafe in the Commonwealth College as well as in the Campus Center, all a 5 – 10 minute walk from Herter, so please take care of that before coming (there are vending machines, but they don’t have hot drinks or particularly edible food). We’ll do registration during the 11-11:30 break and 12:30 – 1:45 lunch break on Saturday, and during the 12:30 – 1:15 lunch break Sunday. We’ll have a printout of the conference schedule and campus map and information about internet access available at the registration table at all times, but the table won’t always be staffed, since we don’t want anyone to have to miss talks or poster sessions. A google calendar for the conference is now available here. Please ask locals if you have any questions – we’re all more than happy to help. Please bring the $60 student/$90 faculty registration fee in cash, American bank or cashier’s check made out to Phonology 2013 UMass. We will issue you a receipt if you want to get reimbursed back home. The registration fee includes lunch both days and dinner Saturday. The one day rate without Saturday dinner will be $20 student/$30 faculty, and the same rate applies if you want to add Saturday dinner to that.  UMass participants’ fees will be heavily subsidized, though we don’t yet have the rates. For the Friday workshop, there is no registration fee, and lunch will be provided for registered participants who ask for one (there will be a separate e-mail about this). The nearest ATM is in the basement of the Campus Center, a 10 minute walk from Herter.

 

3. Handouts, slides, question periods. If you are presenting a talk and want to use a handout, please bring 140 copies (we currently have 118 registered participants). Please place the handouts on the desk in the last row of the conference auditorium by 8:45 am if you are presenting in the morning session, and 15 minutes before the end of lunch if you are presenting in the afternoon. We will use a single computer for slide presentation – please e-mail your slides by noon Friday to the appropriate chair. If you need to make last minute changes to your slides, please arrange to transfer the file some other way at the conference site (e.g. a USB stick).

Saturday morning: Claire Moore-Cantwell  <cmooreca@linguist.umass.edu>

Saturday afternoon: Amanda Rysling <arysling@linguist.umass.edu>

Saturday morning: Presley Pizzo <ppizzo@linguist.umass.edu>

Sunday afternoon: Ivy Hauser <hauserivy@gmail.com>

We have scheduled 30 minutes for each talk (60 minutes for plenaries), and are hoping to have a ten minute question period for each one, if the speakers can stick to 20 minutes. Questions will be delivered into one of two microphones on stands in the aisles, and we ask questioners to identify themselves and their institutions. The order of questions will be determined by the order that people get to the microphones. Since time is limited, we also ask questioners to make questions relatively to the point, and to limit themselves to a single follow-up. Faculty members have asked the chairs to enforce these rules, so don’t blame them if you get cut off.

 

4. Draft papers. We have posted draft versions of some of the papers from oral presentations, linked from the schedule. You’ll notice that the degree of draftiness varies considerably, and we’re even happy to post draft slides. The ideal for you to send us only a link, so you can keep updating the paper. The aim is to encourage maximally informed question periods, other sorts of useful exchange of information through the course of the conference, and other peer commentary in advance of the December 20th final paper submission deadline. See the proceedings page of the blog for more information about the proceedings.

 

5. Posters. Poster dimensions are on the website. We will have chairs for each of the poster sessions, who will distribute 2-sided tape and guide you to your assigned wall or window space. Further details are forthcoming. Please also consider publishing a paper version of your poster in the supplemental proceedings.

 

6. Photocopying and printing.  It will be difficult, if not impossible, to make copies or print posters on campus over the weekend. If you arrive on Friday, UMass Print Services in 151 Whitmore is open until 5. http://www.umass.edu/print/. In Amherst center, we’d recommend Collective Copies (a 25 minute walk from campus), open until 8 pm Friday and 9-3 Saturday http://collectivecopies.com/.

 

7. Lunches, dinners Friday and Saturday, post-conference gathering. You will get tickets for the lunches and Saturday dinner at registration. Lunches will be held in Hampshire Dining Hall (indicated on the map). The conference dinner is Saturday evening at 7:30 at the Amherst Brewing Company. Please bring proof of age if you want to drink (drinks will be at your own cost). The location is about a 25 minute walk from campus, towards Route 9 and the other hotels. There is no official dinner Friday, but there are many good restaurants in Amherst center. One oasis in the fast food desert that is Route 9 is the Ginger Garden – it’s a local phonologists’ favorite, and we recommend ordering from the Authentic Menu. We’ll also have an informal post-conference gathering Sunday in the Commonwealth Room of the Student Union Building immediately following the business meeting (at which pizza will be served). Limited refreshments will be available, and you are free to bring your own too. We have the room until 11.