PR

[Steve Bialostok]

I'm on the board for Council for Anthropology and Education, and we have been 
facing this PR problem for some time, mostly related to policy decisions (e.g., 
NCLB, Race to the Top, etc.) Most recently, we've initiated "policy briefs" - 2 
page, easy on the eyes and brains papers that focus on a single issue. The first 
one summarized the ethnographic information (with summary, bullets, references, 
etc., all made palatable) on Early Childhood Education. This one little brief 
has already received attention in DC (so I hear). 

CAE's role is obviously a bit different than linguistic anthropology, where it 
seems that our (Ling Anthro) desire is for the popular press to pay attention to 
our work. But it seems to me that truly effective PR work requires a systematic 
approach (a committee, a plan). Otherwise, we just tend to become frustrated and 
react. As much as I hate to invoke the seminal phrase of neoliberalism, we need 
to become "enterprising selves" about this issue. 

Steve



________________________________
From: Kathryn Woolard <kwoolard at UCSD.EDU>
To: LINGANTH at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Sent: Wed, September 1, 2010 10:33:26 AM
Subject: NYT and SLA on Whorf

The recent New York Times magazine article on linguistic relativity is
generating internet comment this week. Mindful of Bill Leap's and others'
insightful comments on this listserv about doing our own PR work, I put
together a little bibliographic post for the SLA website as a resource. I've
also sent the links to the article and SLA posting to the AAA P.R. officer,
who has asked for information on members in the news.

http://www.linguisticanthropology.org/2010/09/01/linguistic-relativity-whorf
-linguistic-anthropology/

This piece is just a start; I'm sure many of you have material and
perspectives to add, which will be welcome.

All best wishes, 
Kit