[Linganth] AAA Roundtable: Teaching Lang and Culture from World Anthropologies

[Evelyn Dean Olmsted]

Hello all,

I'd like to reach out to those of you with experience or interest in
teaching linguistic anthropology and related topics outside of the mainland
United States, and invite you to participate in our AAA roundtable:

"Teaching Linguistic Anthropology: Approaches from World Anthropologies"

Thursday, November 19, 2015: 10:15 AM-12:00 PM
Room Centennial B
Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center
Session 3-0540

Our participants are (other than myself) P. Kerim Friedman (National Dong
Hwa University), Tzu-kai Liu (National Taiwan University/ National Chi-Nan
University), Chad D Nilep (Nagoya University), Susana Lea Skura
(Universidad de Buenos Aires) and Christopher Jenks (University of South
Dakota).

Please see below for the abstract. Help us bring together other instructors
of language and culture for a fruitful conversation about the challenges of
teaching a very U.S.-based field in non-U.S. contexts.  We'd also love to
talk with editors and publishers for ideas about how to promote pedagogical
texts that are more easily transferable to non-US audiences, as well as
published translations of scholarship in other languages to English (and
vice versa).

Many thanks,
Evelyn

Roundtable Abstract:

Instructors of language and culture teaching outside of the mainland United
States  - or teaching students of immigrant backgrounds - face challenges
such as finding readings in local languages and incorporating ethnographic
and theoretical material produced by scholars from the same country or
region. While mitigating the U.S. American biases in anthropology textbooks
and other pedagogical materials is a challenge for the discipline as a
whole, contemporary linguistic anthropology is particularly heavy in
U.S.-based theories and theorists, whose constructs don't always travel
well.  Empowering students to analyze their own linguistic-cultural milieu
is a central goal of teaching linguistic anthropology, especially at the
undergraduate level.  However, some common ways of framing course topics –
for example, “Language and Race” – are inherently tied to the U.S.
experience, and therefore may be of little relevance to students attempting
to grasp local entanglements of language, power and social categories.

This roundtable brings together scholars who have grappled with such
challenges, including those who have taught and conducted research in East
Asia (Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong) and Latin America (Puerto Rico,
Argentina).  Topics of discussion include:

-    The state of linguistic anthropology (or the
anthropological/ethnographic study of language, however it is construed) in
the different countries and regions represented by the participants.

-   Concrete examples of challenges faced in teaching and strategies toward
overcoming them.

-   Discussion of “fit” between dominant theoretical perspectives in
linguistic anthropology and participants’ local contexts.

-   Issues of literal and conceptual translation from English (primarily)
to local languages and contexts.

-   Suggestions for “internationalizing” linguistic anthropology curricula,
including possible reformulations of popular topics and incorporating the
work of non-US-based scholars.

-   Other suggestions for creating more opportunities for constructive,
horizontal exchanges between language and culture scholars working in
different national contexts.

-- 
Dra. Evelyn Dean-Olmsted
Catedrática Auxiliar, Departamento de Sociología y Antropología
Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto Río Piedras
evelyn.dean at upr.edu
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