ISB History

The International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB) began at the initiative of Li Wei and Nick Miller of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, who organized ISB1 in 1997 and ISB2 in 1999. Keynote speakers for ISB1 included Peter Auer (Friberg), Pieter Muysken (Leiden), Michel Paradis (McGill), and Shana Poplack (Ottawa); ISB2 featured keynoters Michael Clyne (Monash), Francois Grosjean (Neuchatel), Monica Heller (OISE, Toronto), and Carol Myers-Scotton (University of South Carolina).

The event moved to the University of the West of England in 2001, where Jeanine Treffers-Daller served as the chair of the organizing committee for ISB3. ISB3 keynote speakers included Jim Cummins (Toronto), Ton Dijkstra (Nijmegen), Nancy Hornberger (Pennsylvania), Jürgen M. Meisel (Hamburg), Thomas Roeper (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), and Suzanne Romaine (Oxford).

ISB4 took place at Arizona State University in 2003, with Jeff MacSwan chairing the organizing committee and Fred Genesee, Bernard Spolsky, Loraine Obler, and Ana Celia Zentella as Keynoters.

In 2005, ISB5 has been organized in Barcelona by Melissa Greer Moyer of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. Keynote Speakers where Suzanne Flynn, Judith Kroll, Ignasi Vila, Jef Verschueren, and Li Wei.

The Research Centre on Multilingualism and the University of Hamburg hosted ISB6 in 2007. Keynote Speakers where Ellen Bialystok, Sascha W. Felix, David W. Green, Kenneth Hyltenstam and Virginia Yip.