Colloque "Steppes" - Workshop Steppes
29-30 septembre et 1er octobre 2007, Porquerolles (Var, France)
coord. F. Jacquesson
– 3rd Circular letter – September 12th 2007
Dear Colleagues,
Questions to which I need urgent answers are listed at the end, in § 12
0/ Languages
Several colleagues asked me in which language they should speak or write their paper. My opinon is that participants are free to choose their language(s). Of course, one's wish is to find a balance between feeling comfortable for speaking and being clearly understood by the widest audience. One of the Chinese colleagues is perfectly at ease with English ; Veronique Schiltz will help Constantin Chugunov with English or French. My experience on these points can be summed up:
- You had better speak in your language if your English is bad. In this case, please prepare an English paper with your full or reduced talk.
- If you have a powerpoint in English, with convincing explanations included, why not choosing another language for speaking, if you feel better like this.
- For discussions, we will help each other of course.
1/ Pedagogy and purpose
Once again, remember this is not a specialist conference. Nobody will be considered guilty if he or she does not know who was Altan Tsereg, the exact time of the battle at Andrinopolis, or what is a fricative. Therefore, you are kindly requested to prepare maps or charts; photographs of objets, sites, landscapes are always welcome.
One purpose of this workshop is precisely to have first-class information about things we do not know. The other ones being to correlate that information with what we do know, and to develop a better access to the more interesting correlated problems.
2/ Schedule
up-to-date schedule
Monday afternoon : As you wish, and depending on your personal schedule, you can visit Porquerolles or rush back home. (see § 4, and § 12)
3/ Abstracts and data
Those among you who did not send abstracts for their talk are requested to do it urgently.
Those who did not send a title either are still more guilty!
Remember we also proposed you send a list of 3 publications of yours (titles and exact references) – that would help colleagues from other fields to better appreciate your work. These data will be found in the section "selected bibliography of participants", on the webpage. You can also send the web adress (University, lab etc.) where data about you can be found.
4/ The practical point of view : trip and accomodation
We hope you already reserved your trip tickets. We will be waiting for you in Toulon railway station, September 28th. Please be there at or before 16h30. Toulon railway station is a small one, and we will find each other without difficulty. After 16h30, we will have a special bus driving us to La Tour Fondue, the harbour, and our group will embark on the boat for Porquerolles, a 20 mn crossing. When on the island, a 10 mn walk will bring us to the IGESA center, where the workshop will take place. This is also the place where are our rooms, and all meals will be taken etc.
Leaving Porquerolles
The easiest solution is to leave Porquerolles Monday afternoon by the 14h00 boat. A bus will be ready to bring people back to Toulon railway station, normally about 15h30~15h50.
If you want to extend your stay on Porquerolles, let me know as soon as possible (some of you did it already). The Workshop organization cannot finance this extension, which will be on a different bill which you will have to pay. See final § 12.
5/ If you do not come alone
If you want to come with friend or family, it is quite possible. Let me know you want to have a double room or some specific accomodation. At this stage, I will personnally deal about these matters with IGESA in Porquerolles, in order to centralise wishes.
The Steppe Workshop organization will pay only for participants. Friends or family will have a separate bill, and will have to pay preferably before leaving the island. The price for non-participants is 65,50 euros pension complète (3 meals + night) per day. If you want to check prices directly with IGESA in Porquerolles for extensions: porquerolles@igesa.fr
6/ If you come with your own car
Reimbursement will be possible, provided we have (a) a good approximation of distance in km, (b) copy of the vehicle papers (carte grise), (c) copy of the insurance paper.
7/ If you want to reach Porquerolles by yourself
It is quite possible of course. See information on our webpage under: practical information. If problems, let me know. Reaching La Tour Fondue from the airport is not very easy by normal buses; taxi is easier.
8/ Reimbursements
The Steppe Workshop organization will reimburse trips from your home or work address to Porquerolles and back.
Meals and accomodation are directly dealt with, and you do not have to worry about this. The same is true with the trip from Toulon to Porquerolles and back, if you go with our small group.
For parts of the trip to be reimbursed, please have with you all tickets; for airline tickets, we will need the boarding passes. We will take all tickets you do not need any longer during the workshop, and make a copy or scan of return tickets. Bills you will get only on your trip back home will have to be sent by post as soon as possible after the workshop. They can include: train or plane, taxi, buses or shuttle for airports, and one hotel night if this is necessary.
Think of bringing with your bank account information (RIB etc.) that will make reimbursement possible.
9/ The scientific (but still practical) side.
A videoprojector will be with us, probably also an overhead projector. If you use Powerpoint presentations, please have your presentation ready on a USB pendrive. If your presentation uses special fonts, make sure these will accompany your presentation. If you use paper presentations (handouts), please bring all necessary copies with you: there is no easy photocopying in Porquerolles. If you have other/specific requests, let me know in advance.
Remember there will be no paper publication (unless you loudly protest) of your contributions. We intend to put our contributions on the Workshop Webpage, as soon as possible, ideally in the days that immediately follow the workshop. This means you have to think of it. (1) Either your contribution is quite ready for this e-publishing, understandable without further editing, (2) or your prefer to put on the Web page a different contribution, with additional explanations, or after "secret information" has been deleted. In this second case, please try to prepare your web-page presentation in advance, so that it can be put on the web immediately after the workshop.
10/ The scientific side
The workshop is within a part of the East meets West project of the ESF programme "Origin of Man, of Language and Languages". ESF is for European Science Foundation.
Each talk (30 mn) will be immediately followed by 15 mn discussion, except if time problems appear. Additional time, as you can see in the schedule above, is reserved for discussion.
11/ The not-scientific side
Porquerolles is a nice (and small) place.
The IGESA center is among pines and eucalyptuses, 5 mn from seaside, and in the small Porquerolles village. This village has a few shops, some restaurants and hotels, nearly all grouped around a square for pétanque, with the church close by. It is easy to rent bicycles ; cars are not allowed on the island except for local people.
I am not very sure we will have time for "siesta", because it seems better to work in the early afternoon and have long evenings to talk, or to walk or cycle before the night falls. On September 7th, swimming was still quite possible, I do not know how the water will be, end of September. When the wind blows, better have some pull-over.
12/ Final paragraph: urgent questions
1/ Title and abstract (see § 3)
2/ Let me know when you arrive and when you leave (see § 4 and 7)
3/ Let me know specifically if you intend to be in Toulon railway station on Friday September 28th, 17h00, and take the bus with the group. (see § 4 and 7)
4/ Do you come with friends or family? (§ 5)
Some of you already answered all these questions.
If you have any other question, do not hesitate to contact me.
I also sincerely thank:
Anne Behaghel (Lacito-CNRS) who helps me much putting things nicely.
Alain Peyraube, one main organizer of the whole OMLL programme, who also helps me with some aspects of this workshop.
Geneviève Bührer-Thierry and Véronique Schiltz, who also assisted me, each on her own (wide) province, in preparing this workshop.
What has been done is the result of much effort from many kind colleagues.
Soon in Toulon and/or Porquerolles.
With warm regards,
François Jacquesson, CNRS 
