item 1b: goals

[Trechter, Sara]

In terms of general goals for the organization, I'd like to throw out a
question for discussion.  Is it realistic to ask that a gender and language
organization be a formal networking place for people who are doing
fieldwork, specifically language and gender fieldwork?  It  doesn't seem
that facilitating and processing the fieldwork experience gets talked about
nearly enough in my opinion in any sort of organized fashion or organized
networking.  After doing some fieldwork, researchers find that their
experience and difficulties are common, often through conference chit-chat.
Could we have as one goal  support for acquisition of original language and
gender data?  This would come under a general rubric of networking to some
extent, I suppose.  Unless stated specifically as a goal, however, I don't
think it will be adequately  covered in our 'clearinghouse for language and
gender research.'  I don't mean to privilege one sort of research over
another, but I do believe that gathering gender and language data in the
field requires a certain kind of support that doesn't exist in sufficient
amounts in other organizations.

This happens to be an issue for me, but maybe not for others.  What do you
think?


Sara Trechter
English Dept./Linguistics Minor
CSU, Chico (home of the 4/4 load)
Chico, CA  95929-0830