General Meeting #3

Happy 6th week, meaning it’s time for our third general meeting of the quarter. We will be playing a fun game called Quiddler and having homework help/socializing afterwards, so bring your game face and any homework you need help with! Same time and place as usual…Wednesday at 6pm in Campbell 2122.

Upcoming Talk by Janet McIntosh

Janet McIntosh from the Department of Anthropology at Brandeis University will be coming to speak at UCLA on Wednesday, November 2nd from 5-7 pm in Haines Hall 352. Here is a description of what she will be talking about:

“Linguistic Atonement and Structural Oblivion: Penitence and Hegemony in White Kenyan Language Ideologies”

Abstract: My argument in this talk hinges on the observation that white Kenyan relationships with Kenya’s lingua franca, Kiswahili, stand as a synecdoche for the broader question of white Kenyans’ role in the nation. On the one hand, white Kenyans have shifted from an early twentieth century colonial attitude toward Kiswahili that was patently pejorative to a much more congenial footing I call “linguistic atonement,” in which language enthusiasms and longings are enacted through linguistic behavior as well as meta-linguistically performed, in hopes that such attitudes might help mitigate a history of colonial discrimination. Yet despite the good feelings of many white Kenyans towards Kiswahili, they nevertheless reify a subtle but persistent hierarchy of languages, one established in the colonial era through colonial policies and settler habits, but now largely uninterrogated. Because white Kenyans are so aware of their positive feelings toward Kiswahili but relatively unawa!
re of their role in an enduring linguistic hierarchy that continues to benefit them, I deem their language attitudes an instance of what I call “structural oblivion”; that is, an elite group’s relative lack of awareness of their own complicity in hegemony, no matter how well-meaning they may be.

First Social Event of the Quarter

This Saturday we are holding our first social event of the quarter. Although you may be busy studying for midterms, we all gotta eat, right?! Meet at the bear statue in Bruin Plaza at 4:30 pm this Saturday the 22nd, and we will take the bus to Little Ethiopia in Westwood for, you guessed it, some delicious Ethiopian food. It will be a great opportunity to take a nice study break and get to know your fellow linguistics undergrads even more.

Second General Meeting

Our second meeting of fall quarter is tomorrow night, 6pm in Campbell 2122. We are very excited to have Jamie White, a linguistics graduate student at UCLA, come and speak about his dissertation. Additionally, after Jamie presents, we will be leaving time for a Ling 20 study group session. Bring your homework and anything you’ve been scratching your head about.