(also known as Birds-of-a-Feather Events1)

Applicants should fill out the application form before June 6th, 2026 23:59 (AoE). Please read the information carefully to help you fill in the form.

1The name is a reference to the English idiom “birds of a feather flock together”, meaning that people who are similar tend to spend time with each other.

Introduction

At ACL 2026, we are continuing the tradition of conducting Shared Interest and Affinity Group sessions (also known as birds-of-a-feather, or BoF, sessions) to help researchers get in touch with other people working on the same areas. Following the success of similar initiatives in several *ACL conferences, ACL 2026 is excited to invite applications for the organization of these sessions.

An affinity group is a collective of researchers formed around a pre-existing community or common goal. Previously, affinity groups like Queer in AI, Black in AI, Masakhane, LatinX in AI, and North Africans in NLP have organized socials and workshops in *CL conferences. A shared interest group is an informal discussion group to explore a specific topic, including but not limited to research areas, career development, or teaching. You don’t need to have an established group of people in mind to organise a meeting, a discussion topic is all you need!

Please apply for Shared Interest and Affinity Group meeting organization before June 6th, 2026 23:59 (AoE) by filling out the application form.

Sign-up Details

The application includes the following information:

  • Description of your shared interest (e.g. machine translation) or name of the Affinity Group (e.g. Queer in AI)
  • Brief description of the session or meeting (we may post this in the conference handbook and/or conference app to gather participants’ interests.)
  • Expected number of participants
  • In-person or hybrid format
  • Preferred day and time

Arrangement

We will try our best to arrange resources (room(s) and timeslot(s)) for your application. However, due to space limitations, we may have to merge your application with another application of similar topic. If that happens, we will put you in contact with the other applicant(s) so that you can work together to organize the merged session.

Most events will be scheduled in 90-minute time slots during oral/poster sessions on the main conference days (July 5–7th). If you’re interested in planning a longer event, please submit your application as soon as possible to provide ample time for coordination.

Application and Notification Deadlines

All deadlines are 23:59 UTC -12h (“Anywhere on Earth”, AoE).

  • Application Deadline: June 6th 2026, 23:59 (AoE)
  • Notification Deadline: June 13th 2026, 23:59 (AoE)

Contact

ACL 2026 Diversity and Inclusion team: acl2026dei@googlegroups.com.