language, health and social justice

[Steven Black]

Dear all,
I am hoping to help put something together for the language and social justice group on the topic of language and health. I am not quite sure what form this would take yet, but I have at least two ideas:

(1) A collection of resources for scholars and others with concerns about language and health, including:
	- How linguistic discrimination may enter into medical encounters and/or communicative competence may impact health seeking opportunities.
	- How use of different language varieties may be linked to different conceptualizations of health and illness.

and

(2) A list of issues related to language health that we might be able to impact directly through the dissemination of knowledge, lobbying of relevant institutions/ officials, et cetera.

If anyone has any suggestions on either of these fronts, or has additional suggestions on ways for the language and social justice group to increase its focus on heath issues, please let me know.

Take care,
Steve Black


Steven P. Black

Assistant Instructor
Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University
Ruth Adams Bldg 3rd Floor
131 George Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901