AAA 2011 panel cfp: Linguisitc legacies of national pluralism

[Thea Strand]

Dear all,

Below is a draft abstract for a proposed panel for the 2011 AAA  
annual meeting in Montréal. If you are interested in participating,  
please send an abstract of 250 words or less to one of the panel co- 
organizers, Thea Strand (trstrand at anthro.umass.edu) or Michael  
Wroblewski (wroblews at anthro.umass.edu), as soon as possible but no  
later than April 5.


Linguistic Legacies of National Pluralism
             Linguistic pluralism, the prescribed maintenance of  
multiple languages and varieties, is often a prominent feature of  
contemporary multiculturalist projects. While assimilationist schemes  
focus on leveling racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity  
to establish a dominant national monoculture, pluralist programs  
suggest that national unity can be better achieved by celebrating and  
stimulating social and cultural heterogeneity. Within these pluralist  
visions, existing linguistic forms may become important de facto  
symbols of distinct social identities that color the national mosaic.  
Linguistic diversity is thus presented as the material substance of  
an imagined, multifaceted national character.
             The way diversity is dealt with in abstract national  
politics can leave lasting traces in linguistic forms, as well as in  
localized language attitudes and ideologies. This panel seeks to  
examine these kinds of linguistic legacies through ethnographic  
inquiries across a range of settings by asking a number of important  
questions, namely: What does linguistic pluralism look like in local  
contexts? How is it negotiated? How do national(ist) visions of  
linguistic pluralism inform local attitudes toward language  
variation? How do language varieties like regional dialects,  
sociolects, and ethnolects, factor into pluralist agendas? And is the  
promotion of linguistic pluralism really as egalitarian as it sounds?


********************************
Thea R. Strand, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
214 Machmer Hall
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003
trstrand at anthro.umass.edu