Session on Language & Ideology

[Ron Kuzar]

Call for Papers:

The Israeli Association for the Study of Language and Society is holding
its Annual Meeting on Sunday–Monday, May 5–6, 2002, at Tel-Aviv
University. The general theme of the conference is “Language and
Identity in a Multicultural Society”.

I have been asked to organize a session on “Language and Ideology”.

Papers in this session may be purely theoretical or they may be case
studies, keeping an attentive eye on their general theoretical horizon.
Naturally, some of the speakers will discuss issues of Israeli society,
but other topics are equally welcome.

I look at this session as an opportunity to exchange ideas on the very
nexus of language and ideology and its theoretical foundations. Some
points I find worthy of discussion are:

* the extent to which the study of language and ideology is a
multidisciplinary project.
* Centrality and marginality in the interaction between ideological
metanarratives, such as class, race, ethnicity, religion, gender,
nationalism, [post]colonialism, regional identity, globalization.
* The nature of communication between the oppressor and the oppressed.
* The discourse of building coalitions and fronts: attitudes towards
variation, partial disagreement, and mutual critique.
* The role of cognitive constructs (metaphors, etc.) in a more general
theory of language and ideology.
* The stability/variability of ideologies, and the linguistic encoding
of multiplicity/change.
* The specific role of linguistics in the general study of ideology.
* Discursive harmony between (supposedly) different ideologies.

The language of the conference is Hebrew, and due to budgetary
limitations there will be no interpreting service available, but
lectures in English are welcome. (If there are enough English speaking
participants, others may be willing to present in English as well.)

Please send preliminary letters of interest or queries to me by December
1, 2001. The deadline for submitting abstracts to be included in the
conference booklet has been set to February 28, 2002.

Posted to cogling, critics-l, discours, funknet, language & culture, and
linganth. Feel free to distribute to other relevant forums.

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                 Dr. Ron Kuzar
Address:   Department of English Language and Literature
                 University of Haifa
                 IL-31905 Haifa, Israel
Office:       +972-4-824-9826, fax: +972-4-824-9711
Home:       +972-2-6414780, Cellular: +972-5-481-9676
Email:        kuzar at research.haifa.ac.il
Site:ý          http://research.haifa.ac.il/~kuzar  
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