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#thisISlinguistics begins with @_ravensnest asking us “what is the function of linguistics?” & takes us through their journey to becoming a linguist, starting with Zora Neale Hurston
@_ravensnest goes back to Saussure to revisit the aims of linguistics — we should cite him for his statements on linguists’ role in denouncing linguistic discrimination NOT his views on what’s up with Sanskrit 
@_ravensnest gives an important contextualization of the interdisciplinary birth of not just generative linguistics but that it is inextricable from how linguistics has progressed as a field. BUT only SOME intersections are represented #thisISlinguistics
@_ravensnest: for linguists, interdisciplinarity is great, unless it is with a field which centers marginalized people. this leads (especially marginalized) students to leave linguistics to leave for those fields which DO center marginalized communities #thisISlinguistics
@_ravensnest SURPRISE! THIS IS WHAT WHITE SUPREMACY LOOKS LIKE. And wall-building hurts our field. miles-hercules says: let’s turn our microscope into a telescope! #thisISlinguistics
my dumb ass is yelling encouraging advice to @WordsByJamaal on my computer #thisISlinguistics and we’re ok with technical difficulties!
@WordsByJamaal will take us through positionality in teaching & research and asks us to reflect on how we’re all also part of the problem and solution (this initial framing is such good pedogogy too) #thisISlinguistics
@WordsByJamaal starts with positionality with Wittgenstein: our bodies shape the way we see the world. linguistics is pretty white; when reading a ling paper, what assumptions do we make about race? do we expect to learn authors’ race when we read ling papers? #thisISlinguistics
@WordsByJamaal can we separate our methods and analysis from our subjective lived experiences? #thisISlinguistics
@WordsByJamaal “this isn’t linguistics” is a indexical proxy for race. Muwakkil uses the example of racialized dress codes to show how “color blind” policies are proxies for racial exclusion #thisISlinguistics
@WordsByJamaal Which topics, methods, approaches are kicked out of linguistics in a way that systematically exclude racialized scholars & epistemologies? what do we gain from a narrow view of linguistics? #thisISlinguistics
from @WordsByJamaal’s research with college conservatives:
unmarked context sounds objective, and marked context sounds subjective. when we don’t marked the unmarked, we actively undermine our colleagues whose research and bodies aren’t afforded unmarkedness
#thisISlinguistics
unmarked context sounds objective, and marked context sounds subjective. when we don’t marked the unmarked, we actively undermine our colleagues whose research and bodies aren’t afforded unmarkedness
#thisISlinguistics
@WordsByJamaal your positionality, whatever it is, is a resource! all research needs to be contextualized, and we can do this to some extent across disciplines! #thisISlinguistics
@_kendracalhoun is closing out the panel discussing grad student as a crucial locus of diversification of the linguistics curriculum #thisISlinguistics
@_kendracalhoun we can’t have more diversity in linguistics without having more diverse grad student bodies without having more diverse undergrad linguists. & grad students have a special role as being inseparable from undergrads & faculty #thisISlinguistics
@_kendracalhoun grads have more face time with undergrads, are sometimes closer in age, more diverse, and are/were in the classroom themselves more recently. and they’re instructors/instructors-in-training: professionals still in need of professionalization! #thisISlinguistics
@_kendracalhoun argues for expanding the grad curriculum accordingly, moving beyond content/methods courses to include professionalization: the “hidden” curriculum #thisISlinguistics
@_kendracalhoun this hidden curriculum is even more hidden for first-generation, low income, international, and otherwise underrepresented students. #thisISlinguistics
@_kendracalhoun which student’s major interest are represented in the “core” curriculum? which are required? (SN: why is syntax core and not language contact or sociolinguistics) #thisISlinguistics
@_kendracalhoun which languages count for language requirements? does interdisciplinary work require lots of extra courses and increase time to degree? #thisISlinguistics
@_kendracalhoun do we assume in our grad curriculum that our grads have BAs (or even MAs) in linguistics? #thisISlinguistics
@_kendracalhoun How does your dept institutionalize professionalization in a way that is accessible to everyone? can you make this part of your seminars? what resources are available to minoritized students in particular??? #thisISlinguistics
our curricula reflect our values. how do those values shape who becomes a linguist? @_kendracalhoun #thisISlinguistics
@WordsByJamaal says something feel like i’m always saying (and SO RELEVANT for our @geo3550 strike at UMich): Students have a lot more power than they think! not to downplay power dynamics at all, but as a (kinda) recent mover from student to faculty, i feel this in my bones
@_ravensnest points out that getting feedback from undergrads (maybe via grads!) can also help us figure out what depts need to do to improve their programs #thisISlinguistics
@_kendracalhoun: there’s a misperception that grads and undergrads have very different needs, and that’s not the case! (i would add, in some cases true for faculty as well!). We can organize around shared goals! #thisISlinguistics
thank you to @_ravensnest @WordsByJamaal @_kendracalhoun for framing these issues in such necessary ways, and taking the conversation in deeper and wider directions! #thisISlinguistics
