[Edling] Share Your Memories of Bernard Spolsky

Wed Nov 9 12:50:55 UTC 2022

 It has taken me a long while to process Bernard's passing, the loss of a
true friend and cherished mentor as well as visionary leader in multiple
fields of study.  The past few years have been a period of profound
turmoil, and death and disease have become frequent yet unwelcome friends,
both globally and in my life personally.  In this ecology of suffering,
Bernard's death hit me especially hard, and I will notice his absence the
rest of my days.  He has had an immeasurable influence on my scholarly work
and my career.  I knew him in two ways: as Spolsky, the scholar/author and
as Bernard, the friend/mentor.

I first encountered him before I met him, having read his early work
establishing the field of educational linguistics in courses I took with
another dear friend and mentor, Nancy Hornberger.  I was a new doctoral
student in Penn's Educational Linguistics PhD program.  In his 1978 book,
Spolsky noted that educational linguistics can be defined by shared
interests and action: what we who have an affinity for language in
education *do*.  That is what drew me to Penn's program where I found many
like-minded peers and professors.  The more I read Spolsky's work, and that
of others who were theorizing educational linguistics as a field, though, I
became intensely interested in exploring the nature of educational
linguistics, what distinguishes it from applied linguistics, what
relationships it has with linguistics proper and other fields of language
study or other disciplines, what possibilities it affords for
theory-practice relationships, and how it can facilitate socially
responsible pedagogy and policies.  My curiosity led me deeper into the
vast body of Spolsky's work, reading everything I could find where he had
any pearls of wisdom to offer about the nature of educational linguistics.

In the early 2000s, probably some time in 2002 or spring 2003, Spolsky came
to visit Penn, and I had my first opportunity to meet and talk with him
one-on-one.  I was in awe at the time that the founder of my field was
sitting across the table from me.  As is his way, he spoke to me as a
colleague.  It was an inspiring conversation where he left me feeling like
I, too, could have an impact on the field.  The theme of educational
linguistics as an intellectual space for those with like-minded interests
in language in education continued in that conversation.  At the time,
Harold Schiffman had recently founded the Language Policy
<https://clpp.umbc.edu/listserv/> e-mail list as part of the also newly
minted Consortium for Language Policy and Planning.  When talking with
Spolsky, I asked him if he thought that educational linguistics could use a
similar list.  Wouldn't that be a good way to bring like-minded people
together from across the world to engage with educational linguistics?  He
enthusiastically said, "do it!"  Shortly thereafter, I got busy learning
how to create a list with advice from Hal Schiffman and help from
tech-savvy peer Shannon Sauro (it took a bit of Unix knowledge back then)
and set up the Educational Linguistics List
<https://lists.mail.umbc.edu/mailman/listinfo/edling>.  To make it viable,
I needed some important people on the list.  I e-mailed Spolsky, letting
him know about my progress, and he kindly offered to invite people he knew
to join.  It was because of his encouragement and support that the
Educational Linguistics list came to be and has been going strong for
nearly 20 years.

Over the ensuing months, the two of us continued e-mail correspondence
about educational linguistics and soon became e-mail friends, and Bernard
emerged as a mentor and early champion of my work and career.  Around this
time (2002), he founded the new journal *Language Policy*.  He encouraged
me to rework an advanced seminar paper for submission to the journal, which
I did.  When the reviewer feedback came back 'revise and resubmit', Bernard
took the time to offer thorough and strategic feedback on how I could
sharpen the paper.  It was such kindness for him to invest his time in
nurturing a junior scholar when he was no doubt exceedingly busy with
journal management and his own prolific writing.  He was always giving in
that way.  Thanks to his guidance, I published my first single-authored journal
article
<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/B:LPOL.0000036182.40797.23>.

A little while later, Bernard offered me another opportunity that had a
major impact on my intellectual development and career.  He was planning to
put together a Handbook of Educational Linguistics
<https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9780470694138> for the
then Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics series, and he invited me to join
him as a co-editor.  I was both honored and surprised as I was still a
couple of years away from finishing my PhD at the time.  And conventional
wisdom would say that a doctoral student should not waste their time
editing a handbook.  Bernard assured me that conventional wisdom was wrong
in this case, and that it would be good for me (and Nancy as my
dissertation chair thankfully agreed with him).  He also told me I would be
a 50%-50% partner in every way, not a glorified assistant who gets his name
on the book as a reward.  We got to work on the book.  I could not believe
my fortune.  There I was having regular discussions with the founder of the
field about how to frame it and shape its future directions.  Together, we
wrote feedback and made suggestions to some of the most important scholars
in the field.  I learned so much from him through this collaboration, both
intellectually through the scholarly work and practically through the
editorial administration--wisdom that has stayed with me over the years.
At his passing, we had been working on the second edition of the *Handbook*,
delayed by that ecology of suffering felt by us all in one way or another.
His legacy will continue as we press on.

Beyond these major milestones, I also fondly remember our small encounters:
visits, lunches or dinners at conferences, being on panels together,
serving on editorial boards with him, and regular e-mail exchanges.  I
always felt like I came away wiser from each of them.  I also vividly
remember his broad smile every time he saw me.  He loved the work, and he
loved the people with whom he did it.

Rest in peace, dear friend,
Francis

--
*Francis M. Hult, PhD, FRGS* | Professor
Department of Education
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)

Editor, Educational Linguistics Book Series
<https://www.springer.com/series/5894>
Co-Editor, Contributions to the Sociology of Language Book Series
<https://www.degruyter.com/view/serial/16644>

Web Profile <https://education.umbc.edu/faculty-list/francis-m-hult/> |
Academia.edu <http://umbc.academia.edu/FrancisMHult> | Google Scholar
<https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2x7pOMwAAAAJ&h> | TESOL at UMBC
<http://tesol.umbc.edu/>

*From: *Lgpolicy <lgpolicy-bounces at lists.mail.umbc.edu> on behalf of
> "Francis M. Hult via Lgpolicy" <lgpolicy at lists.mail.umbc.edu>
> *Reply to: *"lgpolicy at lists.mail.umbc.edu" <lgpolicy at lists.mail.umbc.edu>
> *Date: *Sunday 21 August 2022 at 17:16
> *To: *"lgpolicy at lists.mail.umbc.edu" <lgpolicy at lists.mail.umbc.edu>,
> Educational Linguistics List <edling at lists.mail.umbc.edu>
> *Cc: *"Francis M. Hult" <fmhult at umbc.edu>
> *Subject: *[Lgpolicy] Share Your Memories of Bernard Spolsky
>
>
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
>
>
> Professor Bernard Spolsky meant so much to many of us as a scholar,
> friend, and mentor.  He founded the field of educational linguistics, and
> he was a pioneer in the field of language policy.  As moderator of the
> Edling and Lgpolicy listservs, I invite list members to share their
> favorite memories of Bernard as a tribute to him.  I am cross-posting for
> those who are not on both lists.
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Francis
>
>
>
> --
>
> *Francis M. Hult, PhD, FRGS* | Professor
>
> Department of Education
>
> University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
>
>
>
> Editor, Educational Linguistics Book Series
> <https://www.springer.com/series/5894>
>
> Co-Editor, Contributions to the Sociology of Language Book Series
> <https://www.degruyter.com/view/serial/16644>
>
>
>
> Web Profile <https://education.umbc.edu/faculty-list/francis-m-hult/> |
> Academia.edu <http://umbc.academia.edu/FrancisMHult> | Google Scholar
> <https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2x7pOMwAAAAJ&h> | TESOL at UMBC
> <http://tesol.umbc.edu/>
>
>
>
>
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