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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">Colleagues,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">We have space available in our panel on <b>Multilingualism in
Post-Colonial Societies</b>. <span> </span>If the abstract
below resonates with your work and you would like to join the panel, send an
email describing your topic to <b>both <a href="mailto:kmanagan@ksu.edu">kmanagan@ksu.edu</a>
and <a href="mailto:jmessing@umd.edu">jmessing@umd.edu</a> by Monday, April 3.</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><b>AAA 2017 Panel:<span> </span>Multilingualism in
Post-Colonial Societies </b></p><b>
</b><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><b> </b></p><b>
</b><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><b>Co-Organizers:<span> </span>Jacqueline
Messing (U Maryland-College Park) and Kathe Managan (Kansas State U)</b></p><b>
</b><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><b>Discussant:<span> </span>Prof. Salikoko
Mufwene (U Chicago)</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">Multilingualism is one of the most common human diversities and
scholars have developed models that strive to accurately reflect its
complexity. In postcolonial societies in particular, theories seek to capture
the subtleties of power inherent in multilingual language use. Our models do
not always align with emic perspectives on multilingualism, however. The goal
of this panel is to bring our linguistic anthropological,
ideologically-centered perspective into dialogue with the perspectives of
multilingual speakers themselves. We use ethnographic data to critically reexamine
three dominant theories of bilingualism used by scholars of language–local and
not–and speakers of languages in multilingual contexts, focusing on bivalency,
diglossia and translanguaging. In addition to questioning the extent that these
models accurately describe practice, this panel asks: Why do certain models
hold sway? What purposes do specific approaches serve? How do site-specific ideologies
of multilingualism influence the models themselves?<span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:normal">This panel will reconsider the notion of “bilingualism”
building, directly or indirectly, on Fergusonian notions of diglossia. Ferguson
elaborated the model of diglossia to describe situations where two different
varieties of the same language coexist in a society in a hierarchical
relationship, while maintaining separate domains of use. The diglossia model
was later adapted to include situations in which different languages were spoken
(e.g. Fishman 1967, 1985; Snow 2010), including examples of “colonial
diglossia” (Makihara 2004). We question whether diglossia is a salient concept for
all multilingual speakers around the world, or predominantly for linguists. In
Guadeloupe, local linguists and language activists promote the idea of
diglossia while acknowledging that a strict functional compartmentalization of
French and Kréyòl does not occur; many other Guadeloupeans hold onto this idea
as well. In Mexican Nahuatl-speaking communities, diglossia–as traditionally
conceived–does not exist; syncretic speech is the linguistic and ideological
result of colonialism (Hill & Hill 1986, Messing 2013). <span> </span>Recognizing the fuzziness of language
boundaries, the concept of bivalency (Woolard 1997) offers insight into the
meanings that speakers make by skillfully mixing two (or more) codes or playing
off potential double meanings. The papers in this panel consider the extent to
which the concept of bivalency adds pragmatic depth to diglossic bilingualism. Translanguaging,
“the act performed by bilinguals of accessing different linguistic features or
various modes of what are described as autonomous languages, in order to maximize
communicative potential (Garcia 2009:140) is an insightful novel approach that
to date has had minimal traction in anthropology. What does the new work on
translanguaging bring to the theoretical table? <span> </span>Language brokering and <span class="gmail-il">translanguaging</span>
practices in classroom discourse will be explored among transmigrant
communities from Mexico and Guatemala. Relations of power emerge discursively
in postcolonial societies, where colonization has resulted in multiple, often
multilingual voices being iconicized (Irvine and Gal 2000). </p>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Tahoma" color="#000000">
<font face="Arial">Jacqueline Messing, Ph.D.<br>Lecturer, Department of Anthropology<br>University of Maryland-College Park<br><a href="https://umcp.academia.edu/JacquelineMessing">https://umcp.academia.edu/JacquelineMessing</a><br></font></font></div><div><font size="2" face="Tahoma" color="#000000"><font face="Arial">Twitter: @jacqmessing<br><br></font></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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