[Linganth] In-Group Queer Languages Beyond the West

[Seth Palmer]

Call for Papers for Lavender Languages and Linguistics Conference (Sept
2-4, Edinburgh) and Proposed Special Issue: In-Group Queer Languages Beyond
the West

Pioneering researchers of twentieth-century argots developed by sexual and
gender minorities documented covert lexicons employed by trans women and
gay men – often including sex workers – and, to a lesser extent, lesbian
women and trans men (Hayes 1976; Painter 1981; Sonenschein 1969). This
research typically explained the emergence of in-group linguistic practices
through the lens of Halliday’s (1976) anti-language framework.

As the field of lavender linguistics developed, however, scholars began to
challenge the notion that these lexicons, sociolects, and registers solely
functioned as secret codes. Subsequent research moved beyond compiling
inventories of lexical terms to adopt more nuanced analytical approaches.
While some scholars have emphasized the functional ability of sociolects to
produce belonging among sex/gender minorities (Boellstorff 2004), others
reveal how such argots work to highlight disbelonging and reify difference
within a purportedly unified LGBTQ community (Levon 2012).

Much of this scholarship has disproportionately focused on coded forms of
speech employed in Western Europe or North America (Leap 1996; Baker 2002;
Leap 2020; Chauncey 1994) and white South Africa (Cage and Evans 2003). The
epistemic hegemony of institutions within these regions over academic
knowledge production and circulation resulted in research agendas that
privilege communities and contexts most accessible to Western academia. Our
proposed special issue, however, aims to contribute to the scholarship on
queer argots outside these regions, building upon the rich ethnographic
work on bhasa gay in Indonesia (Boellstorff 2004), swardspeak in the
Philippines (Manalansan 2003; Casabal 2008), pajubá in Brazil (Simões de
Araújo 2022), and isiNgqumo in South Africa (Rudwick and Ntuli 2008), among
others.

This panel and proposed special issue seek to expand scholarly attention to
marginalized queer sociolects of the Global South, indigenous communities,
and Europe’s peripheries. Beyond regional expansion, we invite
contributions that examine how these multifaceted, camouflaged vernaculars
and their lifecycles elide binary understandings of secrecy and visibility
and open up, even if just briefly, novel and emancipatory opportunities for
self-identification outside of dominant languages. We are particularly
interested in work that situates these linguistic practices within the
context of mass mediation and appropriation, the ascendancy of global
far-right anti-gender ideologies, and the creative, playful, and
activist-oriented terrains of 21st-century queer life (Barrett 2018).

We are seeking scholarly presentations which employ any number of
methodologies and may be pursuing scholarly research on a queer language,
either historical or contemporary. Contributors whose papers are accepted
for the panel will be invited to develop their work for inclusion in a
proposed special issue of Language and Sexuality. If you are interested in
contributing, please submit a paper title and an abstract of no more than
400 words by March 17th January 30th to Seth Palmer at seth.palmer at cnu.edu.

-- 
Seth Palmer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Christopher Newport University
https://cnu.edu/people/sethpalmer/
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