We are pleased to announce our February event, which will be our first Language Research Talk with Dr. Sonja Lanehart. The event will be held virtually, via Zoom, on February 24, 3pm-4pm and you are all invited.
Dr. Lanehart will address the relation between language, linguistics, and race in a very interesting talk titled "Words Matter: Language, Linguistics, and Race", All details are in the poster attached, although we are also including a longer abstract here:
"Words matters. And, as we say at my house, all words are made up. Although there is an arbitrariness to words (e.g., there is nothing inherent as to why the furry animal that chases after dots of light is called a ‘cat’ or the one that chases after its tail is called a ‘dog’, especially if we consider that each language has a different word for that same thing), there is intention in their use embedded in their ever-evolving etymologies within the languages they inhabit. Just because words are arbitrary in their assigned creation and meaning does not follow that they are insignificant: “sticks and stones may break my bones (true) but words will never hurt me” (false). Words matter."
In this presentation, we will explore the intersections of language, linguistics, and race from a social justice and equity lens. We will talk about words that are intertwined with the birth of our nation (i.e., the United States of America) and their weight in the midst of an arguably second nadir since the first that began with the end of Reconstruction in 1877. My goal is to begin or continue – depending on where you situate yourself – this discussion about our roles and responsibilities as humanistic social scientists in the midst of #BlackLivesMatter and a reconciliation with African American Language and linguistic justice, as April Baker-Bell (2020) contends, and ‘caste,’ as Isabel Wilkerson (2020) contends."
This event will be in English and is free and open to the public.
Zoom link: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/87861263333
