philosophy statement and name

[Andrew Barke]

Hi all,
I kinda liked the all-encompassing feel of the GALA name itself, but if we
have to change it, how about just shuffling it a little to LAGA (Language
And Gender Association)? Or LAGRA (Language And Gender Research
Association)?
Or have they already been taken too?

I also liked the philosophy statement put forward by Sally McConnell-Ginet
(minus the  "research has often had not only a theoretical but a practical
aim,
seeking to understand the linguistic underpinnings of male dominance in
order to dismantle male privilege" if poss.)


==============================================
Andrew Barke
PhD candidate                       Tel:   022-233-7927
Graduate School of International Cultural Studies
Tohoku University
Sendai, Japan
==============================================

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> 差出人 : Trechter, Sara <STRECHTER at CSUCHICO.EDU>
> 宛先 : GALA-L at LINGUIST.LDC.UPENN.EDU
> 件名 : philosophy statement refreshment
> 送信日時 : 1999年7月9日 6:12
>
> This posting is a request for 1) working out possible alternatives for an
> acceptable *wording* of a philosophy statement in light of our philosophy
> vote and 2) for an organizational name that reflects that philosophy.  A
few
> weeks ago, we voted where to go with a basic statement of philosophy and
its
> relationship to feminism.  As a reminder, Gala-L voted for:
>
> 	2)  Include an overt philosophical statement for GALA which
> 	emphasizes the promotion of feminist research and goals among other
> things 	which may or may not conflict with 'feminist' goals, such as the
> study of queer 	language, gendered language and ethnicity, gender and
race.
>
> As stated at the time, this brief sentence was not intended to be *the*
> philosophy of Gala-L only the wording for the vote.  Several postings at
the
> time expressed concerns about being inclusive enough for future
generations,
> of non-western or non-Anglo people, language and masculinity folks, queer
> theorists, feminists and non-feminists. And, Sally McConnell-Ginet posted
a
> possible wording for the philosophy statement:
>
> 	GALA is an organization that seeks to promote research on the
> interaction
> 	of gender and language.  This field of scholarly inquiry began
> developing
> 	in response to feminist concerns about the ways in which sex, power,
> and
> 	language connect to one another; research has often had not only a
> 	theoretical but a practical aim, seeking to understand the
> linguistic
> 	underpinnings of male dominance in order to dismantle male
> privilege.
> 	Queer theorists have brought the linguistic dimensions of
> sexualities and
> 	heterosexism into the picture.  Critical studies of language and
> racial
> 	identities, ethnicities, and masculinities have also expanded the
> field far
> 	beyond what was included under the early "women and language
> "rubric.  GALA
> 	is being started to help foster more regular productive exchange
> among
> 	scholars of language and gender with many different research
> emphases and
> 	orientations and from diverse disciplinary backgrounds.
>
> Some discussion (2 postings) ensued about whether to include:
>
> > research has often had not only a theoretical but a practical aim,
> >seeking to understand the linguistic underpinnings of male dominance in
> >order to dismantle male privilege.
>
> Now is the time to discuss this proposed statement further, propose
> suggestions for changes or compose alternatives, and create possible
names
> for the organization.
>
> When the facilitators first began this list, we considered SGLA
(Sexuality,
> Gender and Language Association) SiGnALS (Sexuality, Gender and Language
> Society?) finally opting for the name "Gender and Language Association
List
> (GALA-L)."  We thought of this as an interim name since at the time, we
did
> not know what the subsequent organization of the society might be. We did
> know that we probably wouldn't be able to keep GALA as a name because
GALA
> has been in use since 1993 as the acronym for the European conference
> Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition.
>
> Now that there is a notion of what GALA might look like based on the
> philosophy statement vote, naming seems more feasible. We invite
proposals
> for names that reflect the inclusive statement of philosophy.
>
> This should be fun.
>
> Kira, Sara, Mary, Megan
>
> Dr. Sara Trechter
> Asst. Professor Linguistics/English
> CSU, Chico
> Chico, CA 95929-0830
> (530) 898-5447 (office)
> (530) 898-4450 (fax)