Faculty of Philosophy
Dear colleagues,
It was a pleasure to accept your abstracts for the SCHEMAS conference in Niš, Serbia on Dec 6-7 2024.
Below please find some news and practical information.
There will be about 40 presentations total, spanning various domains, such as cognitive and formal linguistics / semantics, cognitive psychology, music and visual cognition. We plan to organize everything in two parallel sessions, along with three keynotes, breaks/refreshments, dinner together on Friday, 6th, etc.
Two of our three distinguished keynotes, Todd Oakley and Beate Hampe, will be speaking live in Niš. Beate and Todd, thank you very much for your kindness and effort! In addition, Ray Jackendoff had to opt for an online lecture in the end, due to health issues advising against frequent long-haul travel. Ray, we all wish you good health and look forward to your talk!
Those presenters who have been asked to update their abstracts are required to do so by October 15. Otherwise, if your acceptance was not conditional, there is no need to change anything in the abstracts. We hope to be able to print the abstract booklet shortly before the conference (and we will of course share the PDF file in late November).
The early-bird fees are valid by November 1. So please do consider paying the fee ASAP! Due to local regulations, this must be done by bank transfer [and for Europeans – Serbia is not in the SEPA system – negotiations are apparently ongoing – so a SWIFT transaction will probably be required for you as well; sorry about that 🙁 ]. The EUR swift instruction for your bank is attached to this message. For Field 70 (Details of the payment) please state SCHEMAS conference fee.
Travel: Niš has a small international airport, yet the number of lines has dwindled lately, mostly due to Ryan and Wizz Air’s endless overhaul procedures where they need to reduce the number of planes / lines. In any event, as the first option, we advise that you familiarize yourselves with the flights in and out of Niš, as there might be a chance for you to connect from somewhere, e.g. by plane or train:
https://ini.aerodromisrbije.rs/en/flights/destinations/
If Niš is not an option, you may use airports in Belgrade, Sofija and, potentially, Skopje. Belgrade is 230km north of Niš and there are frequent direct buses from the central bus terminal (the ride takes about 3 hours, check, for instance, Flix Bus, Lasta, or Niš Ekspres). We would advise using Belgrade as an entry hub as there are no further border controls. Sofia is even closer (160km southeast), yet the highway on the Bulgarian side is not yet fully complete and there is a full-fledged border to cross, which always means a possibility of delays (again, check Niš Ekspres or Matpu bus companies). The same applies to Skopje (200km south of Niš, check Niš Ekspres for the buses again).
Several people have asked about renting a car in Belgrade or Sofia: yes, it is an excellent option if your funding allows it. All through Serbia (and further south after the North Macedonian border to Skopje) the highways are excellent. When one crosses into Bulgaria, the road is very good, four lanes and all, yet for the most part not yet a full highway, plus the airport is on the opposite side of the city. So count on about two hours by car for any one of these three options.
Unfortunately, no trains are available at the moment. The good news is that Serbian railways are undertaking a massive restoration process, with fast trains already linking Belgrade and the northern city of Novi Sad, and extending on to Hungary, plus new ones planned to Niš and further south and east. The bad news – at the moment – is that all these works mean no passenger trains are operating between Niš and Sofia / Skopje (and the one from Belgrade is ridiculously slow, so please take the bus).
If there are flight-avoiders and/or environmentalists among you, as we have at least one such team member, please write and we will try to provide advice on alternative travel.
Accommodation: Niš has plenty of hotels, hostels, and a well developed air b and b offer, so the choice is yours! While the town is not too big, plus there is a good city bus system, we suggest looking for hotels in the vicinity of the conference venue – the Central University building, popularly known as Banovina, Univerzitetski trg 2, 18000 Niš. This is as central as places get, just across the main entrance to Niš fortress, and overlooking the central city square.
Some nice venues downtown:
https://www.ambasadorhotel.com/
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g295382-d3557388-Reviews-Sole_Hotel-Nis_Central_Serbia.html
https://consulaccommodation.rs/?language=en
We will keep you posted about further developments! Please do not hesitate to write if you have any queries.
We look forward to an excellent conference!
The organizing team
VIEW THE PDF FILE:
