Português
Questions of linguistic equity now occupy a prominent place in sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, language policy, education, translation, and decolonial scholarship. Researchers examine unequal access to participation, publication, education, public services, and political representation associated with language. Yet linguistic equity is neither a historically stable concept nor the product of a single disciplinary tradition.
This workshop proposes a critical history of how linguistic inequality can be considered an object of knowledge within the language sciences. It asks how scholars in different periods identified, described, justified, ignored, or challenged unequal relations among languages and their speakers. What terminology did they use? Which forms of inequality became scientifically visible, and which remained unrecognized? How did prevailing ideas about language, nation, and standardization shape the available responses?
The workshop also examines the institutions and material settings through which ideas about linguistic equity developed. These may include schools, universities, academies, missionary organizations, colonial administrations, international organizations, scientific expeditions, conferences, publishing systems, and language-planning agencies.
We invite historically and historiographically informed papers addressing topics such as:
* genealogies of linguistic equality, equity, justice, and rights;
* histories of deficit, difference, and discrimination in linguistic thought;
* language planning and the changing relationship between equality and standardization;
* colonial and postcolonial formations of linguistic knowledge;
* the treatment of minoritized, Indigenous, migrant, signed, or non-standardized languages;
* multilingualism, plurilingualism and unequal participation in scientific institutions;
* translation and interpretation as instruments of inclusion or control;
* AI as a tool for or against linguistic equity;
* linguistic authority in international governance and transnational organizations;
* methodological problems involved in writing histories of linguistic equity.
Contributions may focus on particular scholars, concepts, institutions, regions, languages, or historical periods. Comparative and transnational studies are especially welcome. The workshop seeks to bring together histories that are often treated separately and to investigate whether “linguistic equity” can serve as a productive historiographical category without erasing the distinct intellectual and political conditions from which earlier approaches emerged.
By reconstructing these diverse genealogies, the workshop will reflect about how the language sciences may have both reproduced and contested linguistic hierarchies. It will also provide a historically grounded account of the assumptions underlying contemporary demands for more equitable linguistic participation.
Presentations may be delivered in any language. To facilitate accessibility for all participants, however, presentation slides should be provided in Portuguese, French, English, or Spanish.
References
Flores, Nelson, and Jonathan Rosa. 2015. “Undoing Appropriateness: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and Language Diversity in Education.” Harvard Educational Review 85(2): 149–171. https://doi.org/10.17763/0017-8055.85.2.149
Hymes, Dell. 1973. “Speech and Language: On the Origins and Foundations of Inequality among Speakers.” Daedalus 102(3): 59–85.
Phillipson, Robert. 1992. Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove. 2000. Linguistic Genocide in Education—or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights? Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
This workshop proposes a critical history of how linguistic inequality can be considered an object of knowledge within the language sciences. It asks how scholars in different periods identified, described, justified, ignored, or challenged unequal relations among languages and their speakers. What terminology did they use? Which forms of inequality became scientifically visible, and which remained unrecognized? How did prevailing ideas about language, nation, and standardization shape the available responses?
The workshop also examines the institutions and material settings through which ideas about linguistic equity developed. These may include schools, universities, academies, missionary organizations, colonial administrations, international organizations, scientific expeditions, conferences, publishing systems, and language-planning agencies.
We invite historically and historiographically informed papers addressing topics such as:
* genealogies of linguistic equality, equity, justice, and rights;
* histories of deficit, difference, and discrimination in linguistic thought;
* language planning and the changing relationship between equality and standardization;
* colonial and postcolonial formations of linguistic knowledge;
* the treatment of minoritized, Indigenous, migrant, signed, or non-standardized languages;
* multilingualism, plurilingualism and unequal participation in scientific institutions;
* translation and interpretation as instruments of inclusion or control;
* AI as a tool for or against linguistic equity;
* linguistic authority in international governance and transnational organizations;
* methodological problems involved in writing histories of linguistic equity.
Contributions may focus on particular scholars, concepts, institutions, regions, languages, or historical periods. Comparative and transnational studies are especially welcome. The workshop seeks to bring together histories that are often treated separately and to investigate whether “linguistic equity” can serve as a productive historiographical category without erasing the distinct intellectual and political conditions from which earlier approaches emerged.
By reconstructing these diverse genealogies, the workshop will reflect about how the language sciences may have both reproduced and contested linguistic hierarchies. It will also provide a historically grounded account of the assumptions underlying contemporary demands for more equitable linguistic participation.
Presentations may be delivered in any language. To facilitate accessibility for all participants, however, presentation slides should be provided in Portuguese, French, English, or Spanish.
References
Flores, Nelson, and Jonathan Rosa. 2015. “Undoing Appropriateness: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and Language Diversity in Education.” Harvard Educational Review 85(2): 149–171. https://doi.org/10.17763/0017-8055.85.2.149
Hymes, Dell. 1973. “Speech and Language: On the Origins and Foundations of Inequality among Speakers.” Daedalus 102(3): 59–85.
Phillipson, Robert. 1992. Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove. 2000. Linguistic Genocide in Education—or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights? Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.