Gender and Language Association

[Mary Bucholtz]

AN INVITATION TO A GALA (GENDER AND LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION) EVENT

It is time to acknowledge over a quarter of a century of excellent work in
gender, sexuality, and language and to ensure that this work continues to
be recognized as an essential component of language research. The last 25
years have seen increased publication in the field of language, gender and
sexuality, the inclusion of language and gender as a focus area at many
national and international meetings, and numerous regional and specialized
conferences. The importance of regional groups (especially the Berkeley
Women and Language Group) towards establishing language and gender as an
academic field of study cannot be overstated, and the continual
regeneration of such groups is vital to the larger fields of which language
and gender studies is a constituent part, such as anthropology, education,
ethnic studies, gender studies, linguistics, literary studies, psychology,
rhetoric, sociology, speech communication, and women's studies (as well as
many others). To complement regional and specialized conferences and to
create an accessible national network for language, gender and sexuality
researchers, we seek to form a national language and gender organization.
The working name of this organization is GALA (Gender and Language
Association).

We invite anyone interested in discussing the purpose, goals and structure
of a national language and gender organization to join in the discussion on
GALA-L, the GALA LIST. This closed, unmoderated list was formed with the
express purpose of facilitating participation and discussion of a national
language and gender group. The ultimate goal for this discussion will be to
form a mandate for the national organization. Of course, participation on
the list is not limited by language, gender or sexual preference(s), one's
major field of interest in language, or relationship to academia. Graduate
students and scholars beyond academia, including independent scholars, are
especially encouraged to participate.

To subscribe to GALA-L, send e-mail to LISTSERV at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
with the following in the body of the message:

subscribe GALA-L Firstname Lastname

where "Firstname Fastname" are your own first name and last name. Or you
may subscribe via the web at:

http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-gala-l.html

You will receive information on how to post and on the guidelines for our
discussion. If you have questions about GALA-L, contact one of the
listowners:

Mary Bucholtz, Department of English, Texas A&M University (bucholtz at tamu.edu)
Sara Trechter, Department of English, California State University, Chico
(strechter at csuchico.edu)

If you have questions about GALA itself, contact one of the facilitators:
Mary Bucholtz, Department of English, Texas A&M University (bucholtz at tamu.edu)
Justine Cassell, Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(justine at media.mit.edu)
Megan Crowhurst, Department of Linguistics, University of North Carolina
(mjcrowhu at email.unc.edu)
Kira Hall, Department of Anthropology, Yale University
(kirahall at pantheon.yale.edu)
Monica Macaulay, Department of Linguistics, University of Wisconsin
(mmacaula at facstaff.wisc.edu)
Sara Trechter, Department of English, California State University, Chico
(strechter at csuchico.edu)