MA in Gender and Language?

[Carmen Caldas-Coulthard]

Sorry to have to send this to the whole list, but I need to reply to Anna Serpa. The study of Gender in Brazil has a long history and in fact, the biggest conference in the world on Gender Studies (3.500 participants) 'Fazendo Genero' - Doing Gender' - was held at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Florianopolis in August this year. This is a biannual conference and this was the 9th conference. Just as an example (although I am not in Brazil at the moment), I started teaching language and gender courses at UFSC in the early 80's!!! In fact, the current president of IGALA (International Language and Gender Association) is Brazilian, Anna Cristina Ostermann, working at UNISINOS. There are many scholars in many universities in Brazil that are interested in gender studies, so Anna, do a bit of research on this. Both UFRJ and d PUC-Rio have also a long tradition on Critical Thinking and I am sure you could find professors interested in your topic.


Dr. Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard
Centre for English Language Studies,
Westmere House
University of Birmingham, UK
Dr. Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard
Centre for English Language Studies,
Westmere House
University of Birmingham, UK
________________________________
From: International Gender and Language Association [GALA-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Anna Serpa [bserpa at YAHOO.COM]
Sent: 17 November 2010 12:56
To: GALA-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: [GALA-L] MA in Gender and Language?

Hello Ms. Sunderland, members of the list.

I tried to finish my research on Gender and Language here in Rio but it was simply impossible, as there are no courses in the area, at least not that could cover the vast spectrum of this kind of work. For example, UFRJ is basically gerativist -oriented, and even though you want to make a parallel with it and discourse analysis or sociolinguistics, you just won´t be able to make it, as bureocracy and the narrow scope of the studies are a problem.

I went on developing my work on my own, not belonging to any institution, with the help of a few fellow Neurosciences researchers, Psychologists and some Linguists. Even though, at least in Rio, the MA courses are not made for anything new but merely repeating some old theory, ergo, as the studies in Gender and Language are very broad and new, there are no courses in the area, at least not one that could really fulfill all the interrelations and connections that this kind of study demands.

Therefore, I now have a big and broad study and nowhere to present it, as it just won´t fit any academic line already proposed and they simply won´t open anything new.

Most thankful for your attention,

Anna Serpa