Imagine planning a global conference for more than two years—advertising, reviewing abstracts, accepting submissions, registering participants, acquiring funding, putting together a program, all of it—to be confronted with a hurricane that formed from a potential tropical storm into a category four hurricane in less than 75 hours.
Camilla Vasquez, PhD. (Photo by Corey Lepak)
That’s what Dr. Camilla Vásquez from the Department of World Languages overcame in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
6th International Conference of the American Pragmatics Association (AMPRA) is held every other year at universities across the country, bringing together scholars and students from across the globe. The aim of this conference is to advance both theoretical and applied research in pragmatics, while bringing together scholars with interests across various subfields, such as philosophical, linguistic, cognitive, social, intercultural, and interlanguage pragmatics. This year, participants from Germany, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Japan, as well as from 15 other countries, planned to travel to St. Petersburg, Fla. to attend this event.
Vásquez, who works at USF Tampa and lives in St. Petersburg, was excited to show off her city and institution.
“This was the second linguistics conference I’ve organized at USF St. Pete. The previous one—on a different topic— was held in 2022 and it was a huge success, especially with our international participants!” Vásquez said.
But when Hurricane Helene threatened Florida’s west coast in September, a decision on whether to continue the conference had to be made.
“On Tuesday morning when we learned that Helene had been upgraded to a hurricane, we anticipated that airport closures were imminent. At that point, instead of canceling—which would have been disappointing – or rescheduling—which would have been more difficult—we made the decision to move the entire program online and we immediately notified our ninety-six registered participants about the change,” Vásquez said.
“Incredibly, we had a nearly 100 percent participation rate! Of the over 80 presentations on the program, only two individuals were unable to present due to storm-related disruptions. The outpouring of support—and concern about our well-being—from our national and international colleagues has been truly heartwarming.”
Jihye Kim, a PhD candidate in the Linguistics and Applied Language Studies program, was inspired by Vásquez’s dedication and leadership in the face of this adversity.
“During the conference, Dr. Vasquez was incredibly engaging. Whenever we encountered technical issues or had questions, she was right there with immediate solutions. Her responsiveness gave me the confidence I needed to host my session successfully,” Kim said.
The name badges prepared for attendees before the conference switched to virtual (Photo courtesy of Camilla Vasquez)
“I was truly inspired by Dr. Vasquez's dedication and leadership. We had a very tight deadline to transition the conference from in-person to online, but Dr. Vasquez handled it with positivity and efficiency. Her clear direction made it easy for all of us to follow along seamlessly.”
Thanks to this dedication, the event proved to be a resounding success.
“As both a presenter and conference volunteer, I found AMPRA-6 to be a valuable and worthwhile experience, providing me with the opportunity to learn how to rise to unexpected—and even uncontrollable—professional challenges,” explained Xiangyu Zhang, a PhD candidate in the Linguistics and Applied Language Studies program.
“To me, AMPRA-6 was both a challenging and a rewarding experience—one that I believe contributed to the professional development of all attendees.”
To learn more about opportunities within USF’s Department of World Languages, visit their website.