Linguists’ roles in communities

One of the many things I’m doing at the moment is writing a paper on doing experimental work in collaborative fieldwork communities. I wasn’t at the Hawaii endangered language conference but I’ve been hearing rumours that there was a lot of talk which could be said to boil down to “linguists shouldn’t do anything in [...]

ethics and linguistics

I have mentioned this before, but I’d like to encourage everyone to  head over to the Linguistic Society of America’s ethics blog for some discussion. We have just started posting regularly and would like to hear feedback, comments, and discussion on the topics raised.

Australian folk language policy (1): the failure of monolingualism

When Kevin Rudd came to power nearly a year ago, many of us linguists thought we might get a better deal for language in Australia. After all, it’s not every day that monolingual Australia elects a prime minister who is fluent in Mandarin. I think some of us assumed that Rudd’s sensitivity to multilingualism might [...]

Protecting oneself from protectors

Lise recently sent my way a post purporting to be a guide for communities who wish to protect themselves from anthropologists. It reads rather more like the criminalisation of research, to be honest.
I have some comments on this document, not specifically about the need the need for such a document or the empowerment of communities [...]

Ethics Statement

I’m still busy (although the business has moved from the Bardi learner’s guide, which is “resting” to await final typo identification, to another project), but before I was busy with the learner’s guide and moving in, I was involved with setting up a public forum for discussion of the LSA’s draft ethics statement. The [...]

IRBS

While I’m busy unpacking boxes, have a read of Zachary Schrag’s IRBlog.

The anatomy of an apology

Twelve years after the ‘Bringing Them Home‘ report, 16 years after Paul Keating’s Redfern speech, 18 years after the High Court rescinded the doctrine of terra nullius, and 41 years after their removal from the flora and fauna list, there will be an apology to Indigenous Australians for past injustices. It’s probably no surprise to [...]