national v. international

[Mary Bucholtz]

Hello galas,

Definitely a discussion about the nature of the organization (international
vs national) is on the agenda. Thanks for proposing it. We are including
every item everyone suggests.

(from Sara via Mary)



> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Piller [SMTP:piller at UNI-HAMBURG.DE]
> Sent:	Wednesday, February 03, 1999 1:19 AM
> To:	GALA-L at LINGUIST.LDC.UPENN.EDU
> Subject:	national or international?
>
> Dear all,
>
> I think the creation of a language and gender association is a great
> idea, and I'd like to thank the facilitators for all the work they are
> putting into this. However, I share a concern that has already been
> addressed by others: why a national list? In a field where many
> theoretical debates have centered around the generalizability of
> findings from the language use of white middle-class speakers of
> American English, such a restriction seems even less appropriate than in
> other fields.
>
> A lot of feminist theory is strongly concerned with diversity these
> days, and again I think that such a concern would call for an
> international orientation of a professional organization dedicated to
> language and gender. Actually, I can think of numerous reasons for an
> international organizations: the strong contribution of French and
> Italian scholars to feminist theory, globalization in the academic
> community and elsewhere, the challenge of multilingualism to linguistic
> theory and practice, etc.
>
> Basically, what I am asking is to place the issue "national or
> international" on your list of issues for debate. An organization such
> as the International Pragmatics Association might serve as a model, in
> this respect.
>
> With my best wishes for the success of GALA, Ingrid Piller
> --
> 	Dr. Ingrid Piller
> Seminar fuer Englische Sprache und Kultur
> Universitaet Hamburg
> mailto:piller at uni-hamburg.de