GALA and BWLG

[Kira Hall]

Dear GALA,

I want to thank Suzanne Wertheim for her last message, which included some
very important questions for us to think about when developing GALA.  I
just wanted to say a few words about the relationship of GALA to BWLG and
offer some unfinished thoughts on the subject.

Before the list facilitators created this list and put forth the idea of
GALA, we consulted extensively with current members of the BWLG, and
primarily Suzanne.  Our reasons for doing this were (at least) three-fold.
First, both Mary and I were once primary organizers of BWLG and hesitated
to go forward with creating a broader-based language and gender
organization without consulting the current BWLG, particularly as many of
GALA's activities would inevitably overlap with those of the BWLG.  As an
organization run by graduate students, BWLG offers wonderful opportunities
for students working toward Ph.D.'s in language and gender or
sociolinguistics, and we didn't want in any way to undermine what the BWLG
offers younger scholars.  Organizing the 1992 BWLG conference was THE most
valuable experience I had as a graduate student, and I strongly believe
that graduate students should have the opportunity to become intimately
involved with such an undertaking.  I should also add that graduate
students are often more on 'the cutting-edge' of things than us more
weathered folks (a mere three years of full-time teaching has certainly
weathered me, unfortunately), and I'm hoping that we can create a GALA that
seriously incorporates graduate student input and energy.

So I disagree with Alice's portrait of what involvement in professional
conferences or organizations can do to a graduate student, as I see this
involvement as potentially very important to a graduate student's future.
At any rate, graduate students should certainly be the ones to decide on
what can fit into their workload, not faculty members.  I am aware,
however, that in professional organizations like this, graduate students
are often given the grunt-work instead of the more rewarding enterprises,
and I think that we should be very careful to make involvement in GALA
valuable for its graduate members.

(As an aside, I'm sad to see BWLG disband, as I think it's an important
organization for graduate students, and I think there's plenty of room out
there for several conferences and organizations on language and gender.  I
wouldn't be a bit surprised if some future Berkeley graduate student
decided to revive the BWLG, and I hope we'll be ready to support them if
they do.  Has the BWLG considered sharing the organization with graduate
students at other universities, so as to keep it going as a shifting-site
conference, or is that just not a possibility?  Smaller, regional-based
conferences can be awfully nice.)

Our second reason for consulting the BWLG was that, as former organizers of
BWLG, Mary and I both felt a certain indebtedness to the organization, for
renewing academic interest in the subject of language and gender and
fostering a community of language and gender scholars.  If different people
had begun this discussion, they may very well have attempted to develop a
GALA without reference to the BWLG, but Mary and I (and Sara and Megan as
well, if I may speak for them) believed that we couldn't really do that
without consulting the organization that we feel has in large part gotten
us to where we are now, i.e. to the creation of a national/international
association for the study of language and gender.

And finally, as Suzanne suggested in her last message, I think we can learn
a lot from the BWLG, particularly with respect to conference organization,
membership (e.g. the extensive BWLG mailing list), and the publication of
conference proceedings.  So I support continued discussion with the BWLG as
we develop this organization.  The more input, the better, I say.

Best,

Kira



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Kira Hall
Assistant Professor of Linguistic Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
51 Hillhouse Avenue
Yale University
New Haven, CT  06520-8277
Office phone:  203-432-3689
E-mail address:  kira.hall at yale.edu
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