BWLG and GALA

[Mary Bucholtz]

Kira's message covered a lot of what I was going to say, but here's my two
cents' worth anyway:

Speaking as a facilitator for a moment, it seems that many on the list are
in agreement that a vote on any proposed connection between BWLG and GALA
needs to take place. We'd like to continue to discuss the issue and then
call for a vote. The nature of that vote is described below.

Suzanne's recent post has done a lot to clarify things. It may also be
helpful to have some additional background. When the facilitators began
discussing the possibility of creating a larger language and gender
organization, we were concerned that this might preempt BWLG and displace
what we all feel is an invaluable resource for the field. We let the BWLG
organizers know what we were thinking and asked them to discuss with each
other how they felt about it. Suzanne's first message is a statement of
what came out of that discussion.

There are three options regarding the proposal Suzanne described:

1. Don't establish any official connection to BWLG.
2. Establish a symbolic connection to BWLG, wherein we acknowledge its
importance to the field but don't draw on its resources in any material way.
3. Establish a material as well as symbolic connection to BWLG, wherein we
do some or all of the following, and perhaps other things too:
- Find a home for its computer, files, etc.
- Make use of its mailing list.
- Hold 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).
- Continue to make the BWLG conference proceedings from earlier years
available.

The vote will involve selecting between no connection and some connection
between the two organizations. If some connection is decided on, we'll then
vote on whether to have a symbolic or material connection, and hammer out
in discussion the details of what the connection would consist of
(recognizing that BWLG might choose to reject the terms that GALA comes up
with).

Suzanne's second post made it clear that there's some urgency about all of
this, because BWLG is apparently not in a position to run a conference next
year, or indeed, ever again. In the interests of continuing the high level
of current activity in language and gender, then, GALA will need to decide
soon whether we're in a position to run a conference that might replace the
BWLG conference, or whether we even want to take such a step. We'll have a
vote on whether to hold a conference after the first two votes have been
taken, since the conference issue is partly dependent on and partly
independent of anything that's decided about BWLG. In the meantime, we
encourage you to continue the very productive discussion that's already
going on about this and other issues. (Suzanne's post, Alice's, and others
included lots of good starting points.)

Speaking now as an individual rather than as a facilitator, I'd like to say
that I favor the third option, in which we think of GALA as picking up
where BWLG is leaving off, both symbolically and materially. That still
leaves us open to shape GALA however we want, but it doesn't let go to
waste the resources that BWLG already has and is willing to turn over to
GALA.

Given BWLG's generosity in its offer to GALA, I think we should also take
seriously the organizers' request that if GALA uses BWLG's resources, it
should continue BWLG's commitment to graduate student involvement in the
organization. (We should take this idea seriously in any case.) I very much
appreciate Alice's concern about not exploiting graduate students, and this
is something we also have to take very seriously. I can say, though, that
as one of the former grad student organizers of BWLG, the experience was
invaluable for me in developing professionally. It may not be clear to
everyone that the reason BWLG is unable to continue (at least in my
understanding of the situation) isn't that the organizers, as grad
students, couldn't carry on, but that as nonspecialists in language and
gender, who were receiving little institutional support, they've found the
job simply too time-consuming and distracting from their primary research
interests. Clearly, an organization like GALA, in which faculty and grad
students work together, along with independent scholars, scholars in
industry, and so on, these issues are less likely to arise. Graduate
student representation in GALA would mean that graduate students in
language and gender could have an equal voice in the future of the field.
Alice is right to caution that grad students may be exploited when they
take on work of this kind, and that needs to be guarded against. But I'd
also like to be sure that students who want the experience of being
involved in a language and gender organization can have that experience,
and can have a voice.

Mary

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Mary Bucholtz
Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Discourse Studies
Department of English
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-4227

bucholtz at tamu.edu
phone: (409) 862-3910
fax: (409) 862-2292
http://www-english.tamu.edu/pers/fac/bucholtz/
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