Oral Presentation Session

Reviewed by: Society for Linguistic Anthropology

Of interest to: Practicing and Applied Anthropologists, Students

Primary Theme: The Political

Secondary Theme: Ethics

(4-0455) Power and the Research Process in Linguistic Anthropology

During the 1990s the convergence of public anthropology, critical and feminist discourse analysis gave new momentum for an engaged linguistic anthropology to emerge.  Cameron et al (1992) was an early attempt to thematize power dynamics in sociolinguistic research. Yet the model of “empowerment” they proposed, as Bucholtz, Casillas, and Lee (2016) argue, remains problematic. This panel seeks to continue the conversation and provide a forum for researchers to reflect upon the diverse kinds of challenges one faces in conducting research that engages with issues of public debate, forms of exclusion, and/or language-related issues in movements for social change and social justice.  Papers will explore such issues as ethical dilemmas, the blurring of the boundary between researchers and researched, the complexities of collaboration with research participants, and the goals of critique. What are ways that researchers can positively intervene in the social reality they study? Who decides what constitutes proper forms of social activism or advocacy? What challenges arise when working with subjects who wield institutional or political power or when the researcher is a member of the indigenous community she studies?

Organizer(s)

• Jacqueline Urla

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

Chair(s)

• Jacqueline Urla

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

Organizer(s)

• Luisa Martin Rojo

  Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Presenter(s)

• Luisa Martin Rojo

  Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

• Monica Heller

  University of Toronto

• Miguel Perez-Milans

  University College London

• Bonnie McElhinny

  University of Toronto

• Donna Patrick

  Carleton University

• Emiliana Cruz

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

Discussant(s)

• Mary Bucholtz

  University of California, Santa Barbara

Presentations:

• 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM

  Building an inclusive linguistic commons in urban spaces
  Luisa Martin Rojo – Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
• 10:30 AM - 10:45 AM

  Disruption and Engagement in a Changing Language Policy Context: Quebec/Canada
  Monica Heller – University of Toronto
• 10:45 AM - 11:00 AM

  Research, Advocacy and the Political Economy of the Caring State
  Miguel Perez-Milans – University College London
• 11:00 AM - 11:15 AM

  "Listen to what the water says:" De-colonial Alliances with, for and around water
  Bonnie McElhinny – University of Toronto
• 11:15 AM - 11:30 AM

  Participatory Action-Oriented Research and the Complexities of Power and Knowledge in Indigenous contexts
  Donna Patrick – Carleton University
• 11:30 AM - 11:45 AM

  Doing Research in Your Own Community
  Emiliana Cruz – University of Massachusetts Amherst
• 11:45 AM - 12:00 PM

  Discussion
  Mary Bucholtz – University of California, Santa Barbara