journal

[Mary Bucholtz]

Kenneth wrote, responding to Alice:

>
>>      4. What I would most like to see beyond the sorts of things
>> outlined above is a journal that deals specifically with rigorous
>> theoretical and/or data-based work on language, sex and gender.
>> No such journal presently exists.
>
>I agree whole-heartedly.  The question that I have is whether this
>research is being done frequently enough, and on large enough a scale to
>support a journal?  Although, I suppose, if we have the journal, it might
>encourage more people to do this sort of work.
>

Given the number of language and gender conferences around the world (at
least seven this year, in addition to the Berkeley Women and Language
Conference), and countless sessions, special themes, panels, etc., I'm
confident that there's enough research out there to support a journal, and
I entirely support the idea of starting one up. One issue I'd like to
raise, though, is that there are at present two journals that focus on
language and gender issues: *Women and Language*, put out by the
Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender; and
*Language, Gender, and Sexism*, put out by the International Applied
Linguistics Association (AILA). While I think there's room for another
journal, I also want us to keep these other efforts in mind.

The mandates of the other journals and the current discussion of what
GALA's purpose suggest (at least to me) that one way to set the journal
apart from others would be to focus on language and gender without
explicitly emphasizing women or sexism. It's likely that these topics would
be well represented in any language and gender journal and I'd expect that
articles on such topics would be welcome in GALA's journal as well, but if
the scope is more general, people might also feel more encouraged to submit
articles that don't necessarily focus on women or sexism, such as studies
of gay men. A journal called, for instance, "Gender and Language" or
"Language, Gender, and Sexuality" would include both those who understand
their work as feminist and those who do not, without privileging either. (I
guess we'd have to argue about whether "gender" includes sexuality or
not....)

Another way the journal could differ from those that currently exist is
that it would presumably be interdisciplinary rather than affiliated with a
particular field (such as communication or applied linguistics). And
personally, I'd like it to have a wide distribution and a high profile. The
other two journals are very good but seem to have a more restricted
distribution, perhaps because they aren't put out by major presses.

What do others think about these issues?

Mary


_________________________________________________________
Mary Bucholtz
Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Discourse Studies
Department of English
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-4227

bucholtz at tamu.edu
phone: (409) 862-3910
fax: (409) 862-2292
http://www-english.tamu.edu/pers/fac/bucholtz/
_________________________________________________________