About
If not properly studied and implemented, Natural Language Processing (NLP) models pose risk to marginalized communities, such as the queer community; to counterbalance these risks, it is paramount to make sure that queer researchers are included in the study, development, evaluation, and conversation around NLP technologies. Furthermore, Queer in AI’s demographic survey reveals that most queer scientists in our community do not feel completely welcome at conferences and in their work environments, with the main reasons being a lack of a supportive queer community and a lack of queer role models.
Over the past years, Queer in AI has worked towards addressing these critical issues, yet we have observed that the voices of marginalized queer communities – especially transgender, non-binary folks and queer BIPOC folks – have been neglected in this process. The purpose of this workshop is to highlight issues that these communities face by featuring talks and panel discussions on the inclusion of intersectional marginalized identities such as non-Western non-binary identities, as well as Black, Indigenous, and Pacific Islander non-cis folks in natural language processing.
Additionally, at Queer in AI’s socials at NAACL 2022, we will focus on creating a safe and inclusive casual networking and socializing space for queer folks involved with AI. Our goal is to host one in-person social and one virtual social.
Call for Contributions
We are excited to announce our call for contributions for the Queer in AI Workshop at the NAACL 2022 Conference! We are calling for research papers on queer issues in natural language processing and linguistics. In addition, we are also interested in general research done by queer researchers. Accepted works will be linked to our website and invited to present at the NAACL 2022 Conference. The submissions need not be directly related to the themes of the workshop, and they can be works in progress. No submissions will be desk-rejected.
We invite the submissions in the following tracks:
Queer linguistics: This track invites submissions of studies related to the language around gender and sexuality. For example, the application of ideas from queer theory to language research, or providing an overview of the discursive formation of heteronormativity. Some examples are: trans linguistic activism, queer neomorphemes, strategies for gender-inclusive language reform.
Queer AI and NLP: This track invites submissions at the intersection between NLP and queerness. Possible themes could be the usage of NLP to analyze queer language or discovering flaws behind NLP methodologies which may harm queer folks. Some examples are: harms regarding non-binary representation in language models, ethical considerations on using gender as a variable or making policies related to AI and gender-diversity.
Queer activism and D&I: This track invites submissions related to issues with queery inclusivity in NLP events and solutions to increase it. We also invite stories and strategies for queer activism in tech and academia, as well as artifacts and tools to promote queer advocacy. Some examples are: Queer in AI’s guide on conference inclusivity, best practices for inclusive name change policies and analyzing diversity in ecology conferences.
Research symposia: This track invites submissions by queer folks in the NLP and linguistics community. The topics in this track do not need to be queer-related, however, they should fit within NLP or linguistics. Have a look at the submissions to the ICML 2021 edition of this track.
Submissions
Submission is electronic, using the OpenReview.net platform. All papers must follow the ACL Author Guidelines. All submissions should be anonymized. Please refrain from including personally identifying information in your submission.
All authors with accepted work will have FULL control over how their name appears in public listings of accepted submissions.
Paper submissions must use the official ACL style templates, which are available here (LaTeX and Word). Please follow the general paper formatting guidelines for “*ACL” conferences available here. Authors may not modify these style files or use templates designed for other conferences.
We also highly encourage work presented in a non-traditional format, including, but not limited to art, poetry, music, or videos! Submissions need NOT be in English. This is to maximize the inclusivity of our call for submissions and amplify non-traditional expressions of what it means to be Queer in AI.
There are no page limits. If you are considering submitting work presented in a non-traditional format, you are still required to submit an abstract and include a link pointing to your work.
Important Dates
* Visa-friendly submission deadline: Sunday, April 10 AoE (Anywhere on Earth)
* Final submission deadline: Friday, May 20 AoE (Anywhere on Earth)
* Final notifications of acceptance: Wednesday, June 01
* Camera-ready submissions due from accepted authors: Wednesday, June 15
We will open the call on Sunday, February 20 and we will have TWO deadlines for submission – one is a visa-friendly submission deadline, in case you want to present your work in-person at the conference and will require to obtain a visa to do so. Note that we are currently NOT guaranteeing full support for the process of obtaining a visa, but we will work our hardest to provide as much support for this as we can. The visa-friendly deadline to submit to our workshop is Sunday, April 10 AoE (Anywhere on Earth) and the final deadline is Friday, May 20 AoE.
Acceptance notifications will go out on a rolling basis, and final notifications of acceptance will go out by Wednesday, June 01.
If you need help with your submission in the form of mentoring or advice, you can get in touch with us at queer-in-nlp [at] googlegroups.com.
Contact Us
Email: queer-in-nlp [at] googlegroups.com
More information at: https://sites.google.com/view/queer-in-ai/naacl-2022