[Edling] Proposal to Eliminate Linguistics and Endangered Languages from NSF: A SUGGESTION TO ORGANIZE AN EFFECTIVE, CONCRETE CAMPAIGN

Thu May 14 18:37:40 UTC 2026

Hello Everyone,
If you really want busy people in our field to campaign en masse to block
NSF gutting of linguistics funding, the LSA, TESOL, AAAL etc. and other
associations could pool association legal, linguistic, resources. These
people could research, prepare, write and address EFFECTIVE e-mails to the
appropriate budget cutters at all levels and send these action messages to
all of us in the field to send out en masse.

You could also send them out via a WhatsApp Group and have people forward
the joining link to colleagues who then would do the same. Serious fighting
means concrete preparation.

I would send them if you prepared them.

Ad astra!

Myrna Goldstein
MATESL
Switzerland

Myrna Goldstein, B.S.Journalism, MATESL
Founder, Director
Are You in Your English File?®
Second Language Learning Research Center
Montreux, Switzerland
e:  myrnaenglishfile at gmail.com
Skype:  myinmi
t: +41 76 252 1863

On Thu, May 14, 2026, 13:25 Damien Hall via Edling <
edling at lists.mail.umbc.edu> wrote:

> Dear Francis, dear colleagues,
>
>
>
> What's the best thing for linguists outside the USA to do?
>
>
>
> All the best from the UK--
>
>
>
> Damien Hall
>
>
>
> --
>
> *Damien Hall <http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sml/staff/profile/damien.hall>*
>
> Newcastle University (UK)
>
> (French) Linguistics
>
> *Latest
> <https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-french-language-studies/issue/CD2A1DD8E976B0A41FAD71F3512CEC38>*
> two *publication
> <https://assta.org/proceedings/ICPhS2019/papers/ICPhS_2694.pdf>s* |
> Linguistic *reflections <https://twitter.com/evrydaylg>* | *Buchanan
> <https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/modern-languages-and-cultures/research/research-activities/esperanto/>* *Esperanto
> <https://lernu.net/en/esperanto>* ( | Brit. Conf. of Undergrad Research
> <https://www.bcur.org/>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
>
> Message: 2
>
> Date: Mon, 4 May 2026 08:11:04 -0400
>
> From: "Francis M. Hult" <fmhult at umbc.edu>
>
> To: Educational Linguistics List <edling at lists.mail.umbc.edu>
>
> Subject: [Edling] Proposal to Eliminate Linguistics and Endangered
>
>         Languages from NSF
>
> Message-ID:
>
>         <
> CAEs-vYGci53uGCa+wOAJQ6xgtsktr8rmFx=pTqFbmtU3=i6MJA at mail.gmail.com>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
>
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
>
>
> I share below with the permission of the president of the Linguistics
> Society of America (LSA), Prof. Alicia Beckford Wassink an excerpt from
> the  April LSA newsletter that is likely to be of particular interest to
> list members.  Every voice matters in communicating the value of research
> on language and linguistics, whether direct communication with your
> senators and representatives or government officials, public communication,
> or sharing the information with colleagues.
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Francis
>
>
>
> * * *
>
>
>
>
>
> The proposed federal budget would slash NSF funding by more than half.
>
> NSF's appointed leadership is not waiting for Congress to pass a budget.
>
> Multiple sources have told us that behind closed doors, they are rapidly
> moving to eliminate the entire the entire Directorate for Social,
> Behavioral, and Economic Sciences, including both the Linguistics Program <
> https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nsf.gov%2Ffunding%2Fopportunities%2Flinguistics%3Fmc_cid%3D3db4ae2210%26mc_eid%3Df1cc3b3b6a&data=05%7C02%7Cdamien.hall%40newcastle.ac.uk%7C3d4fc79d8c7244b81f3108deb0feaffe%7C9c5012c9b61644c2a91766814fbe3e87%7C1%7C0%7C639142805119434321%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=BfUPYHLlBSb2xgwBuOHY5JZ8QUmsTcP21rsp0%2FhLr0o%3D&reserved=0
> <https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/linguistics?mc_cid=3db4ae2210&mc_eid=f1cc3b3b6a>
> >
>
> and the DLI-DEL Program
>
> <
> https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nsf.gov%2Ffunding%2Fopportunities%2Fdli-del-nsf-dynamic-language-infrastructure-neh-documenting%3Fmc_cid%3D3db4ae2210%26mc_eid%3Df1cc3b3b6a&data=05%7C02%7Cdamien.hall%40newcastle.ac.uk%7C3d4fc79d8c7244b81f3108deb0feaffe%7C9c5012c9b61644c2a91766814fbe3e87%7C1%7C0%7C639142805119454989%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=FTt6bpZY0IEbVe%2BbUiFpQjQjSwFAyg94lbQVvha4ShE%3D&reserved=0
> <https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/dli-del-nsf-dynamic-language-infrastructure-neh-documenting?mc_cid=3db4ae2210&mc_eid=f1cc3b3b6a>
> >.
>
>
>
>
>
> As officers of the LSA, we are asking you to take three actions:
>
>
>
> 1. Write to the NSF Linguistics Program staff. Ask questions and express
> your concern. Send your email to Wilson de Lima Silva (widelima at nsf.org)
> and Kenyatta Johnson (kenjohns at nsf.gov).
>
>
>
> 2. Make your voice heard in Congress through the COSSA Action Alert below <
> https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcossa.org%2Faction-center%2Ftake-action%2F%3Fmc_cid%3D3db4ae2210%26mc_eid%3Df1cc3b3b6a%23%2F58&data=05%7C02%7Cdamien.hall%40newcastle.ac.uk%7C3d4fc79d8c7244b81f3108deb0feaffe%7C9c5012c9b61644c2a91766814fbe3e87%7C1%7C0%7C639142805119473842%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=3YnHnP6UqtL%2BaVPdy9CqsGX8wPaidLph4oZ2BrZ%2FqcI%3D&reserved=0
> <https://cossa.org/action-center/take-action/?mc_cid=3db4ae2210&mc_eid=f1cc3b3b6a#/58>
> >.
>
> We need to tell Congress to save the Social, Behavioral, and Economic
> Sciences Directorate and the programs within it.
>
>
>
> 3. Help us flood the internet with positive stories that show why the
> world needs linguists. The LSA is participating in a campaign <
> https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.acls.org%2FTalkAboutHumanities%2F%3Fmc_cid%3D3db4ae2210%26mc_eid%3Df1cc3b3b6a&data=05%7C02%7Cdamien.hall%40newcastle.ac.uk%7C3d4fc79d8c7244b81f3108deb0feaffe%7C9c5012c9b61644c2a91766814fbe3e87%7C1%7C0%7C639142805119535617%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=D%2F75QYbfbvti2BxGtFFimxPT4ZNIfcWNlup3J5RERlY%3D&reserved=0
> <https://www.acls.org/TalkAboutHumanities/?mc_cid=3db4ae2210&mc_eid=f1cc3b3b6a>
> >
>
> organized by the ACLS [American Council of Learned Societies].
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> *Francis M. Hult, PhD, FRGS* | Professor Department of Education
> University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Edling mailing list
> Edling at lists.mail.umbc.edu
> https://lists.mail.umbc.edu/mailman/listinfo/edling
>
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