Lavender Languages & Linguistics Conference | |
---|---|
Status | Active |
Founded | 1993 |
Founders | William Leap |
The Lavender Languages and Linguistics Conference is an international conference for LGBT linguistics and other related queer language research and discourse studies. [1] It provides a place for emerging queer linguistics scholarship. [2] The conference is the longest continually running LGBT studies conference in the US. [3]
In 2017 the conference expanded to a Summer Institute [4] with 10 days of class discussion, research opportunities and informal conversations exploring topics of current interest in language and sexuality studies, queer linguistics, and various lavender language themes.
The Lavender Languages and Linguistics Conference was founded in 1993 by William Leap [5] [6] to coincide with the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. At the time, research on these topics was considered marginal within linguistics, and the conference was a key place for researchers to come together to discuss issues in the field. [7] [8] By the 20th conference, there were over 80 presentations and 150 attendees. [9] The conference was host yearly at American University in Washington, DC until 2017 when the conference began to move each year.
A meta-synthesis of conference abstracts by Paul Baker and published in Milani's chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society found early work presented at the conference focused on the existence of "gay language" such as Polari and "lesbian language". In line with the trajectory of the field, more recent work has focused on how various linguistic features index different identities. [10]
The Journal of Language and Sexuality (though not officially linked to LavLang) is closely affiliated with the conference. [11] It was an established venue to publish queer linguistics research. [7] [12]
Number | Year | Date | Host University | City | Country | Website | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st | 1993 | April | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | ||
2nd | 1994 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | |||
3rd | 1995 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | |||
4th | 1996 | September | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Keynote speakers: Ellen Lewin, Charles Nero, Deborah Tannen, Riki Ann Wilchins | |
5th | 1997 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | |||
6th | 1998 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | |||
7th | 1999 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | |||
8th | 2000 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | |||
9th | 2002 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | ||
11th | 2003 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | |||
12th | 2004 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | |||
13th | 2005 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | |||
14th | 2006 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | |||
15th | 2008 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | |||
16th | 2009 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Plenaries: Aren Aizura and Mary Weismantel | |
17th | 2010 | April | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Plenaries/Special Presentations: Gibran Guido, Ellen Lewin, Andrew Tucker | |
18th | 2011 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Plenaries: Scott Kiesling, Carlos Decena, Sharif Mowlabocus | |
19th | 2012 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Special Events:
| |
20th | 2013 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Special Events:
| |
21st | 2014 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Special Events:
| |
22nd | 2015 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Plenary: Rusty Barrett | |
23nd | 2016 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | ||
24th | 2017 | April | University of Nottingham | Nottingham | United Kingdom | Keynote speakers: Dr Helen Sauntson, York St John University (UK) and Professor Paul Baker, Lancaster University (UK). | |
25th | 2018 | April | Rhode Island College | Providence, Rhode Island | United States | Keynote speakers: Mie Hiramoto (National University of Singapore) Margot Weiss (Wesleyan University) and Lal Zimman (University of California, Santa Barbara). | |
26th | 2019 | May | University of Gothenburg | Gothenburg | Sweden | Keynote Speakers: Erika Alm, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Mons Bissenbakker, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Rodrigo Borba, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Holly Cashman, University of New Hampshire, USA, Thabo Msibi, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa | |
27th | 2021 | May | California Institute of Integral Studies | San Francisco | United States | Keynote speakers: Jack Halberstam, Columbia University and Elizabeth Freeman, University of California at Davis Originally planned to be hosted in 2020 in San Francisco at California Institute of Integral Studies, the conference was postpoponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually moved to an online format in 2021. | |
28th | 2022 | May | University of Catania | Catania | Italy | [5] | Keynote speakers: J Calder, Adriana Di Stefano, Busi Makoni, Pietro Maturi, Tommaso M. Milani, Eva Nossem |
29th | 2023 | March | Boise State University | Boise | United States | Keynote speakers: Nikki Lane, Luhui Whitebear, and a Plenary Roundtable "Lavender Languages Past, Present, and Future" |
The Lavender Language Institute, a summer program that Leap founded at Florida Atlantic University in 2017, offers training in queer linguistics to undergraduates, grad students, and others interested in language and sexuality studies.
Number | Year | Date | Host University | City | State | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st | 2018 | June | Florida Atlantic University | Boca Raton | Florida | |
2nd | 2019 | June | Florida Atlantic University | Boca Raton | Florida | |
3rd | 2021 | June | Florida Atlantic University | Originally planned to be hosted in 2020 in person at Florida Atlantic University the conference was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually moved to an online format in 2021. | ||
4th | 2022 | June | Florida Atlantic University | |||
5th | 2022 | June | Florida Atlantic University |
Queer is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or are not cisgender. Originally meaning 'strange' or 'peculiar', queer came to be used pejoratively against LGBT people in the late 19th century. Beginning in the late 1980s, queer activists, such as the members of Queer Nation, began to reclaim the word as a deliberately provocative and politically radical alternative to the more assimilationist branches of the LGBT community.
A pink triangle has been a symbol for the LGBT community, initially intended as a badge of shame, but later reappropriated as a positive symbol of self-identity. In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, it began as one of the Nazi concentration camp badges, distinguishing those imprisoned because they had been identified by authorities as gay men or trans women. In the 1970s, it was revived as a symbol of protest against homophobia, and has since been adopted by the larger LGBT community as a popular symbol of LGBT pride and the LGBT movements and queer liberation movements.
The LGBT community is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals united by a common culture and social movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality. LGBT activists and sociologists see LGBT community-building as a counterweight to heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, sexualism, and conformist pressures that exist in the larger society. The term pride or sometimes gay pride expresses the LGBT community's identity and collective strength; pride parades provide both a prime example of the use and a demonstration of the general meaning of the term. The LGBT community is diverse in political affiliation. Not all people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender consider themselves part of the LGBT community.
Gay bashing is an attack, abuse, or assault committed against a person who is perceived by the aggressor to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ+). It includes both violence against LGBT people and LGBT bullying. The term covers violence against and bullying of people who are LGBT, as well as non-LGBT people whom the attacker perceives to be LGBT.
Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBT studies is the study of topics relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender dysphoric, asexual, queer, questioning, and intersex people and cultures.
LGBT slang, LGBT speak, queer slang, or gay slang is a set of English slang lexicon used predominantly among LGBTQ+ people. It has been used in various languages since the early 20th century as a means by which members of the LGBTQ+ community identify themselves and speak in code with brevity and speed to others. The acronym LGBT was popularized in the 1990s and stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant, LGBTQ, adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual or gender identity.
Gay male speech has been the focus of numerous modern stereotypes, as well as sociolinguistic studies, particularly within North American English. Scientific research has uncovered phonetically significant features produced by many gay men and demonstrated that listeners accurately guess speakers' sexual orientation at rates greater than chance. Historically, gay male speech characteristics have been highly stigmatized, so that such features were often reduced in certain settings, such as the workplace.
Over the course of its history, the LGBT community has adopted certain symbols for self-identification to demonstrate unity, pride, shared values, and allegiance to one another. These symbols communicate ideas, concepts, and identity both within their communities and to mainstream culture. The two symbols most recognized internationally are the pink triangle and the rainbow flag.
Don Kulick is a Swedish anthropologist and linguist who is the professor of anthropology at Uppsala University. Kulick works within the frameworks of both cultural and linguistic anthropology, and has carried out field work in Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Italy and Sweden. Kulick is also known for his extensive fieldwork on the Tayap people and their language in Gapun village of East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea.
GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal based published by Duke University Press. It was co-founded by David M. Halperin and Carolyn Dinshaw in the early 1990s. In its mission, the journal seeks "to offer queer perspectives on all issues touching on sex and sexuality." It covers religion, science studies, politics, law, and literary studies.
LGBT linguistics is the study of language as used by members of LGBT communities. Related or synonymous terms include lavender linguistics, advanced by William Leap in the 1990s, which "encompass[es] a wide range of everyday language practices" in LGBT communities, and queer linguistics, which refers to the linguistic analysis concerning the effect of heteronormativity on expressing sexual identity through language. The former term derives from the longtime association of the color lavender with LGBT communities. "Language", in this context, may refer to any aspect of spoken or written linguistic practices, including speech patterns and pronunciation, use of certain vocabulary, and, in a few cases, an elaborate alternative lexicon such as Polari.
William Leap is an emeritus professor of anthropology at American University and an affiliate professor in the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program at Florida Atlantic University. He works in the overlapping fields of language and sexuality studies and queer linguistics, and queer historical linguistics.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer+(LGBTQ+)music is music that focuses on the experiences of gender and sexual minorities as a product of the broad gay liberation movement.
The modern South Korean LGBT rights movement arose in the 1990s, with several small organizations seeking to combat sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination.
Michael Bronski is an American academic and writer, best known for his 2011 book A Queer History of the United States. He has been involved with LGBT politics since 1969 as an activist and organizer. He has won numerous awards for LGBTQ activism and scholarship, including the prestigious Publishing Triangle's Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement. Bronski is a Professor of Practice in Media and Activism at Harvard University.
Arlene Istar Lev is a North American clinical social worker, family therapist, and educator. She is an independent scholar, who has lectured internationally on topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity, sexuality, and LGBTQ families.
Dragonsani "Drago" Renteria is a deaf Chicano transgender man, CEO of DeafVision, founder and executive director of Deaf Queer Resource Center (DQRC) and long-time resident of San Francisco.
Jean-Nickolaus Tretter was an American activist and LGBT archivist who created the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies, housed by the University of Minnesota.
The Rainbow History Project, also known as RHP, is an American history project founded in Washington, D.C. in November 2000. Its purpose is to “collect, preserve, and promote an active knowledge of the history, arts, and culture of metropolitan Washington DC's diverse LGBTQ+ communities.” RHP's various activities include collecting oral histories, providing walking tours, hosting panel presentations, gathering archival materials, recognizing community pioneers, and research assistance.