vote on BWLG/GALA connection

[Victoria L. Bergvall]

I regret that I step into this discussion after too long a silence over the
past months (due to bureaucratic overload locally). I hope I've kept up on
most of the many excellent points of discussion in the past weeks..

I have to agree with Chris and others that I am also a bit concerned over
the possible choices outlined by Mary Bucholtz.

>1. GALA should not establish any official connection to BWLG.
>2. GALA should establish a symbolic connection to BWLG, which would
>acknowledge its importance as a foundational language and gender
>association but wouldn't draw on its resources in any material way.
>3. GALA should establish a symbolic and material connection to BWLG. A
>material connection to BWLG would involve the following:
>- Finding a home for its computer, files, etc.
>- Making use of its mailing list.
>- Holding a conference that acknowledges the "passing of the torch" from BWLG
>to GALA (but one that might be quite different from BWLG's conferences, as
>some have suggested).
>- Continuing to make available the BWLG conference proceedings from earlier
>years.

I feel that there should be a position partway between 2 and 3: I envision
GALA as a separate entity that explicitly places the discussion of GENDER
at the center, not necessarily WOMEN (though personally I am a feminist and
strongly encourage and incorporate that perspective in my work).

Despite my personal political leanings, however, I believe that to really
understand the workings of gender, we need a strong central place to
interrogate gender and issues more broadly (i.e., not always with women and
feminism at the center)--even encouraging the submission of work with
people we might violently disagree with--and that means
encouraging/integrating a lot more work on issues of language among and
between lesbians, gay men, men, transgendered people, women, etc., not
necessarily/just "Women and Language".

Thus, my biggest problem is that I see a discontinuity between GALA's goals
and the (possibly limiting perceptions of the) NAME/TITLE of the Berkeley
Women and Language Group and the conference they have sponsored. In fact, I
know that BWLG has been open to and sponsored important work in
transgendered/men's/... language, in fact, central to supporting some of
the best US work in language and gender research, and I am heartily
grateful for all their wonderful work.

Therefore, while I also see BWLG as in the position of passing on an
important symbolic and material torch to GALA (i.e., most of position (3)),
I feel we must start GALA as "separate" and broader in appeal (so, more
like 2??).

Can we have it both ways, tap/adopt their resources while making it clear
that we are not just an offshoot of that group? Or is that "using" BWLG
unfairly?

Is there a possibility of somehow defining and voting for a 2.5??

Vicky

P.S. As for Penny Eckert and Stanford sponsoring something on Gender and
Language next spring, GO FOR IT!



_____________________________________________________________
Victoria L. Bergvall       Associate Professor of Linguistics
Department of Humanities    Michigan Technological University
1400 Townsend Drive    Houghton    Michigan 49931-1295    USA
vbergval at mtu.edu    Phone: (906)487-3260   Fax: (906)487-3559
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