CLARIN-CH Day 2026
30 October 2026
University of Bern
Introduction
After the first two editions of the CLARIN-CH Day, which addressed “ORD: Challenges and Opportunities” (2024) and “Towards a CLARIN-CH Ecosystem of Federated Infrastructure for Language Data” (2025), the 2026 edition is dedicated to community building and knowledge exchange among researchers, practitioners, and institutions working with language resources and language technology in Switzerland.
The theme of this year’s edition is “New developments, challenges, and opportunities for open language resources and language technology”.
The event brings together researchers and experts to discuss new developments in the field. It showcases the variety of areas covered by the CLARIN-CH consortium: basic research (linguistics, pragmatics, argumentation), applied research (language education, translation and interpretation), language preservation efforts (digitalisation of Rumantsch, national dictionaries), corpus linguistics and NLP tools and methods, the use of AI and LLMs in academia, research infrastructures, and the ORD paradigm.
Highlights
Keynote Talk by Prof. Dr Theresa Heyd
University of Heidelberg
Abstract: Understanding sociolinguistic affect in digital discourse data
Studying the connection between language and emotion is not a new topic, and in the past decade, it has often been informed by quantitative and computational approaches such as sentiment analysis. At the same time, the interdisciplinary field of affect studies (Ahmed 2004, Wetherell 2012 and others) has developed an understanding of affect as a cultural, political and stylistic practice, leading away from empiricist concepts of discrete emotions as countable and quantifiable.
This is particularly relevant for the interactional and fluid linguistic practices that we encounter in digital contexts. How can we do linguistic research on the affective dimensions of digital linguistic practice? What are meaningful and insightful data that we can work with to understand networked and sometimes short-lived articulations of digital affect, from ick to cringe to aura? And what are some of the procedural and ethical hurdles that may be specifically relevant when engaging with such contexts?
In my talk, I will present findings from my work on the sociolinguistics of digital affect (Heyd in press). I will first discuss some underpinnings and implications of understanding sociolinguistic affect in digital discourse data through the lens of affect theory, and present selected case studies and data points. The second part of my talk will reflect on the methodological aspects of working with such affective data, some of which are messy, hard-to-locate and come with ethical and platform-specific challenges.
- Thematic Sessions on key topics such as multilingual resources, FAIR data principles, and ethical considerations in language data management.
- Networking Opportunities for participants to connect and exchange.
- Showcases & Demos of innovative language resources, tools, and infrastructure developed within CLARIN-CH and its partner institutions.
- Round Table with contributions from the CLARIN-CH Research Data Management Working Group, focusing on ethical challenges, anonymisation, and Data Management Plans (DMPs).
Program
| Time | Programme |
|---|---|
| 9:30 – 10:00 | Welcome Coffee |
| 10:00 – 11:00 | Keynote Talk by Prof. Dr. Theresa Heyd: Understanding sociolinguistic affect in digital discourse data |
| 11:00 – 11:30 | Thematic Session 1: AI and Language Technologies
|
| 11:30 – 12:00 | Thematic Session 2: Corpora and Discourse Analysis
|
| 12:00 – 13:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30 – 14:00 | Showcases & Demos
|
| 14:00 – 14:30 | Thematic Session 3: Open Research Data & FAIR
|
| 14:30 – 15:00 | Thematic Session 4: Language Resources and Infrastructures
|
| 15:00 – 15:30 | Coffee Break |
| 15:30 – 16:00 | Thematic Session 5: Multilingualism & Linguistic Diversity
|
| 16:00 – 16:30 | Poster Session and Networking
|
| 16:30 – 17:30 | Round Table on DMPs for language data and Conclusive Remarks |
| 17:30 | End of the event |
Download the full programme here.
You can find all abstracts collected in the Booklet of Abstracts.
Registration
Registration for CLARIN-CH Day 2026 is now open. The event is free and open to everyone with an interest in language data, research infrastructure, and Open Science. No prior knowledge or CLARIN-CH affiliation is required.
Coffee breaks and lunch are included. Participants cover their own travel and accommodation costs.
Join us at CLARIN-CH Day 2026
Location
University of Bern
Organising committee
- Sandrine Zufferey (UniBE)
- Joanna Blochowiak (UZH, CLARIN-CH)
- Cristina Grisot (UZH, CLARIN-CH National Coordinator)
Scientific Committee: Members of the CLARIN-CH Consortium
Edition
0
This is the third edition of the CLARIN-CH Day. If you want to read more on the previous editions, including programmes, books of abstracts, and event recaps, you can find information here:
