Lavender Languages & Linguistics Conference Schedule

[Brian Adams-Thies]

Dear All:

See the Lavender Languages & Linguistics Conference happening February 14- 16th at American U.

Hope to see some of you there!






The 21st Annual Lavender Languages and Linguistics Conference Program
February 14-16, 2014

The primary conference venue:  The 6th floor meeting rooms in the  Butler Pavilion, American University 4400 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington DC 20016.   www.american.edu/maps<http://www.american.edu/maps>  provides directions to campus/campus maps and indicates the location of the Butler Pavilion.

Friday, February 14

9:30 a.m.  Registration Opens
Butler Board Room

10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.  Critical Discourse Analysis Workshop
David Peterson (U Nebraska Omaha)
Butler Board Room

12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.  Lunch (on your own)

1:30 p.m. – 6:30 pm.     Sessions, Groups 1 & 2
 Session I.A. The Trans Panel
1:30 – 4:00 p.m.
Chair: Elijah Edelman (American U and University of Maryland – College Park)
Butler Conference Room

“Speaking Trans* with a Southern Dialect: Considering Language in Building Transgender Community"
Ryan Conrad Plis (Purdue University)

“Trans linguistics: A review and directions for the future”
Lal Zimman (Reed College)

“‘The Transgender Other’: A Computational Psycholinguistic Analysis of Attitudes Towards Transgender People”
Sarah Bradley (Suffolk U)

“Can the transwoman speak?: Homonationalism and trans exception in Singapore”
Teck Heng Tan (National U of Singapore)

Session I.B. (Anti)Homophobic Discourse Analysis
1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m
Chair: David J. Petersen (U Nebraska Omaha)
Butler Board Room

“Gay Marriage for Americans Only: Political Homophobia in a Puerto Rican News Interview”
Juan M. Escalona Torres (U Hawaii Mānoa)


“You’re gonna get to the good part: Evidentiality and Epistemic Stance in the It Gets Better Project”

Caitlin Elizondo (Georgetown U)


“‘what separates this from a routine job’: Deixis and Homophobic Representations of Social Practices”
David J. Petersen (U Nebraska Omaha)

Session 2.A.  French Twist I: Queer French & Francophone Contexts
3:45 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Chair: Denis M. Provencher (U Maryland Baltimore County)
Butler Board Room

“An Offering to a Goddess: Monique Wittig’s Living Linguistic Body”
Annabel L. Kim (Yale U)


“Talking about sex in the Casbah: Sociolinguistic analysis of gender and the discursive construction of sexuality in Morocco”

Samira Hassa (Manhattan College)

Session 2.B. . French Twist II: Queer Documentary and Performance
Chair: Denis M. Provencher (U Maryland Baltimore County)
5:00 p.m. - 6:30 pm
Butler Board Room

Benjamin Sylvand (Science Po, Paris)
2Fik (Multidisciplinary Artist)



Saturday, February 15



9:00 a.m.  Registration Opens.  Coffee, tea and breakfast treats available.

Butler Board Room



9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.    Sessions, Group 3

Session 3.A.   Erotic/Porn Socialities Part I
Chair:  Brian Adams-Thies (Drake U )
9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m
Butler Board Room

“Who is Speaking?: The Paradigm Shift in Gay Porn Studies in New Media Era”
Lei Mao (Concordia U)

“Stereotype Me Baby: Representing and Repeating Gender and Desire in Japanese Erotic Comics”
Erika Alpert (U Michigan)

“A study of the Objectification of the Human Body across a Spectrum Queer Porn Socialites”
Cristina Palmer-Romero (Independent Scholar)

“Come here and f*ck me: the online webcam industry and its creations of alternate realities”
Margaret Glide (Indiana U)

“Gender Queered Pornography: How We Represent and Understand Non-Binary Gender in Porn”
Tiffany Sostar (U Calgary)

Discussant: William Leap (American U)



Session 3. B.   Sounding Gay/ Gay Speech
Chair: Ron Smyth (U Toronto)
9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Battelle-Tompkins Terrace Seminar Room

“Quantifying phonetic performance of identity: ‘sounding gay’ and ‘sounding straight’ in French and Italian”
Eric Russell (U California- Davis)

“Manifestation of Sexual Identity in the Speech of French Second Language Speakers of English: Evidence from the gay /s/”
Michael Hobart (U Edinburgh)

“Audio, visual, and audiovisual cues to sexual orientation in speech”
Ron Smyth, Libby Atell & Ricky Chow (U Toronto)

“Gay Speech in North American Television”
Emily Blamire (U Toronto)


Session 3.C. Queer Spanish and Catalan
Chair: Erin K. Hogan (U Maryland Baltimore County)
9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Butler Conference Room

“‘Horrendous and impious conduct’, exploring the role of language in the (de/re)construction of bodies during the “most scandalous trial” of nineteenth century Cuba”
Juliana Martínez (U California, Berkeley)

“Queering Postwar Childhood: Black Bread (Pa negre, Augustí Villaronga, Spain 2010)”
Erin K. Hogan (U Maryland Baltimore County)

“The Representation of the Victim and the Victimizer: Newspaper Coverage of the Case of Serial Murderer of ‘Angel of the Bachelors’: The Issue of Poverty, Prostitution, and Hate Crimes”
Doris E. Martínez Vizcarrondo & Anthony Díaz Vázquez (U Puerto Rico)

Session 3.D  Language as a Means of Control: Monitoring Salvadoran LGBT Immigrants
Chair: Rafael A. Lainez (American U)
11:15 a.m. – 12:30 p.m
Butler Conference Room

“Centromaricon: Queer Diasporic Central American Literature”

Giuliani J. Alvarenga (U California, Berkeley)


“Language as a means of control:  Monitoring Salvadoran LGBT Immigrants”
Rafael A. Lainez (American U)

“‘Gay couples and fluffy dogs’:  Discourses of race, sexual orientation, and authenticity in Washington, D.C.”
Amelia Tseng (Georgetown U)

12:30 p.m. – 1:30 pm   Lunch in Terrace Dining Room, Mary Graydon Center
 (lunch ticket included in conference registration)

1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.  Plenary Session
Butler Board Room


·         Welcoming Remarks, Introduction  and Announcements


·         A note on Lavender Languages 22


·         Plenary Address
“American Orientation: Interpellation of the Gay Male Subject in Literary Narratives in Taiwan”
Tai-Wei Chi
Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature, National Chengchi University, Taiwan

2:45 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.:   Sessions, Group 4

Session 4.A  Intersexions: Language & Identity Nexuses
Chair: Tommaso Milani (U Witwatersrand, Johannesburg)
2:45 – 6:30 p.m.
Butler Board Room

“Intersecting “Ge-Di” (哥弟): The Intersection of Sexuality, Gender and Age in the Contemporary Gay Culture of Taiwan”
Meng-Che Ray Tsai (National Tsing Hua U)

“The Artivism of Julio Salgado's Undocuqeer series”
Carrie Hart (U North Carolina, Greensboro)

“Stepping Back from Queer Theory:  Ethnography, Language, and Sexuality in France”
Denis M. Provencher (U Maryland Baltimore County)

“Harlemese, Queer Language, Intersectionalities”
William L. Leap (American U)

“Troubling the Homosocial Collective: The Language of Labor and Carlos Bulosan’s
America Is in the Heart”
Maggie Unverzagt Goddard (George Washington U)

“White Skin, Black Ghosts: Intersections of race, class, and same-sex desire in post-apartheid South Africa”
Tommaso Milani (U Witwatersrand, Johannesburg)


“Black Womyn in the Mother of Mystics: Negotiating the Language of Gender, Race, & Community”
Wimmin South (Independent Scholar)

“Onticide: Toward an Afro-pessimistic Queer Theory”
Calvin Warren (George Washington U)

Session 4.B  Lavender Stance, Syntax, and Voice
Chair: TBA
2:45 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.:

“We are family: Stance and personal agency in the Mississippi LGBT community”
Tamara Warhol & Corey Blount (U Mississippi)

“Day of Desperation: The Voicing of the Authoritative and the Internally Persuasive”
Travis Sago (Indiana U)

“When ‘she’ defines ‘we’: Grammatical gender and the formation of ingroups”
Tiffany Marshall & Grazyna Drzazga  (U Florida)

“Becoming Gaga: Performance, Hybrid Identities, and Linguistic Competency in a New Language”
Nicholas Santavicca (Eastern New Mexico U)

“Is it ‘About Time’ or a ‘Fantasy World?’ Fans, Discourse, and Deciding If ‘Coming Out Matters’ in Women’s Soccer”
Meghan Ferriter (Smithsonian Institution)

“Reading Lesbian Romance, Telling Lesbian Lives”
Lital Pascar (Northwestern U)

“Gay Geeks: The Negotiation of a Space”
Nicolas Saucier (U Laval, Quebec)



Sunday, February 16



9:00 a.m.  Registration Opens. Coffee, tea and breakfast treats available.

Butler Board Room



9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.  Session Group 5



Session 5.a.  Intersections of Language, Sexuality & Hip Hop Culture

Chair: Nikki Lane  (American U)

9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Butler Board Room



“Disruption Within Disruption? Mykki Blanco and Queer(ing) Subjectivity in ‘Gangsta’ Rap”

Jennifer Delfino (American U)



“Complicating Masculinity and Authenticity within Hip-Hop”

Danielle Hodge (Syracuse U)



“Ain’t Nobody Got Time for Twerkin’: ‘ratchet’ and the whiteness of gay Youtubers”

Seran Gee (U Toronto)



“Ratchet: Class, Distinction, and Black Queer Women’s Scene Space”

Nikki Lane (American U)


Session 5.b. Queering Heterosexuality and Challenging Normativities
Chair: Chris VanderStouwe (U California, Santa Barbara)
9:30 a.m.  – 12:30 p.m
Butler Conference Room

“Sex Risk, HIV Prevention, and Citizenship: A Research Framework and Interrogation of ‘Heteronormativity’ as a Framing Concept”
Benjamin Junge (SUNY-New Paltz)

“Commodification of identity: Being ‘straight’ as a social resource”
Chris VanderStouwe (U California, Santa Barbara)

“Sexuality and HIV Treatment as Prevention: An Analysis of the Online Blog ‘My Life on PrEP’”
Brendan Wright (SUNY-New Paltz)

“Slurs, Sports, and Spectacle: Nationality and the Negation of Masculinity in Buenos Aires”
Blenda Femenías (Catholic U)

“Japanese Sooshokukeidanshi ‘Herbivore Men’ and the (Re)-construction of Male Identity and Authority”
Judit Kroo (Stanford U)

“Hors norme: Negotiating the Perceived Incongruence of Heterosexual Male Identities and French Language Study”
Kris Knisely (Emory U)

12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.  Lunch in Terrace Dining Room, Mary Graydon Center
 (lunch ticket included in conference registration)

1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.   Sessions Group 6

Session 6 A  Erotic/Porn Socialities Part II
Chair: Robert Phillips (U Manitoba) and Brian Adams-Thies (Drake U)
1:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Butler Board Room

“‘Which One of them is the Man?’: Pillow Talk in Gay Men’s Porn”
Owen Campbell (U Manitoba)

“What Mapping Pornographic Search Terms Can Teach Us about Queer Anthropology, Globalization, and Sexuality Identity Models”
Gregory Mitchell (Williams College)

“Looking Back for My Penis”
Hoching Jiang (American U)

“Queer Flesh: Pornography and the Shining of Language”
Benjamin Eleanor Adam (CUNY Graduate Center)

“‘Choosing the right partner means choosing the right porn’: porn sociality in gay male hook up culture”
Brian Adams-Thies (Drake U)

“Pornographies and Economies of Violence”
Jake Silver (Columbia U)

Discussants: Robert Phillips (U Manitoba) and Brian Adams-Thies (Drake U)

Lavender Languages Across Cultures
Chair:  William Leap (American U)
1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Butler Conference Room

“On the usage of linguistic borrowings in Lavender Polish”
Grażyna Drzazga & Diana Boxer (U Florida)

“Kaliarda, The Greek Gay Variety: Sexual orientation and language use”
Galini V. Gkartzonika (Northeastern Illinois U)

“Can You Speak Kuno?  Processes of Queer Belonging and Dis-Belonging in Madagascar”
Seth Palmer (U Toronto)

“To Be Mithly or To Be Shath: The Construction of the Homosexual on Lebanese TV”

Abdelhamid Hamouda (Arizona State U)









Dr. Brian Adams-Thies, PhD
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Department for the Study of Culture and Society
Drake University