Society for Linguistic Anthropology https://linguisticanthropology.org/ Official Homepage of the SLA Tue, 21 Oct 2025 23:19:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 229928992 SLA Call for Nominations https://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/2025/10/21/sla-call-for-nominations/ Tue, 21 Oct 2025 22:56:46 +0000 https://linguisticanthropology.org/?p=8306 The Society for Linguistic Anthropology invites nominations for four positions this fall. We encourage you to consider nominating yourself or another member. Each position has a three-year term. Two positions will be appointed by the SLA Executive Board and will begin in November 2025 after the AAA Annual Meeting.   •  Nominations Committee Member (November 2025-2028)   •  Social Media Manager (November 2025-2028) Two… Read More »SLA Call for Nominations

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]]> 8306 They don’t see a problem, we don’t see the desire for connection: Indifference to language loss in Papua New Guinea and its challenge for research https://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/2025/08/07/they-dont-see-a-problem-we-dont-see-the-desire-for-connection-indifference-to-language-loss-in-papua-new-guinea-and-its-challenge-for-research/ Thu, 07 Aug 2025 19:33:46 +0000 https://linguisticanthropology.org/?p=8263 -Lise M. Dobrin and Don Kulick How could language endangerment, which many scholars see as an alarming problem, be largely invisible to the people whose languages are being lost?  Discomfiting comments are sometimes tucked into descriptions of Papua New Guinea (PNG) languages. Consider the following examples:  “Kuot speakers do not seem to be emotionally attached… Read More »They don’t see a problem, we don’t see the desire for connection: Indifference to language loss in Papua New Guinea and its challenge for research

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]]> 8263 A Navajo Poetry of Place https://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/2025/08/07/a-navajo-poetry-of-place/ Thu, 07 Aug 2025 18:57:27 +0000 https://linguisticanthropology.org/?p=8247 -Anthony K. Webster How sad it is that persons bent on debunking Native traditions in Alaska…have used linguistically naive variant spellings of Native place names to assert that the Native toponomy is amorphous and ever-changing. (Kari 1989: 139) We create trust by hanging out with people in their own environment. We become more humane and… Read More »A Navajo Poetry of Place

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]]> 8247 “Nobody wants Their Doomscroll to be Interrupted”: Struggling for Visibility against Algorithmic Suppression https://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/2025/08/07/nobody-wants-their-doomscroll-to-be-interrupted/ Thu, 07 Aug 2025 18:44:24 +0000 https://linguisticanthropology.org/?p=8241 -Danny Begg Tik Toks, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram reels are all examples of short-form video content that is ubiquitous across social media. The term “doomscrolling” was added to the Merriam Webster dictionary in 2023– it refers to an excessive amount of scrolling through online content and it seems to be uniquely related to these short-form… Read More »“Nobody wants Their Doomscroll to be Interrupted”: Struggling for Visibility against Algorithmic Suppression

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]]> 8241 Pay No Attention to Those Engineers Behind the Curtain: The Hidden Infrastructure that Runs AI https://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/2025/08/07/pay-no-attention-to-those-engineers-behind-the-curtain-the-hidden-infrastructure-that-runs-ai/ Thu, 07 Aug 2025 18:40:26 +0000 https://linguisticanthropology.org/?p=8237 -Joseph Wilson The following is an (lightly edited) excerpt from Joseph Wilson’s forthcoming book Humans of AI: Understanding the People Behind the Machines to be published by University of Toronto Press in Spring 2026. Copyright Joseph Wilson 2025. Reprinted with permission of the publisher. “I picture the transistors as trembling bodies with translucent skin and… Read More »Pay No Attention to Those Engineers Behind the Curtain: The Hidden Infrastructure that Runs AI

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]]> 8237 Introduction: In/Visibility in Linguistic Anthropology https://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/2025/08/07/introduction-in-visibility-in-linguistic-anthropology/ Thu, 07 Aug 2025 18:32:23 +0000 https://linguisticanthropology.org/?p=8233 -Sarah Muir & Courtney Handman Four times a year, Anthropology News puts out calls for submissions on a particular theme. The current theme of “in/visibility” prompted an incredible amount of interest from linguistic anthropologists working on an array of topics and in a wide range of fieldsites. With all of this interest, we wanted to… Read More »Introduction: In/Visibility in Linguistic Anthropology

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]]> 8233 What I Wish I Knew Then… Reflections on Building a Career in Linguistic Anthropology https://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/2025/03/24/what-i-wish-i-knew-then-reflections-on-building-a-career-in-linguistic-anthropology/ Mon, 24 Mar 2025 14:13:18 +0000 https://linguisticanthropology.org/?p=8073 An SLA Online Conversation Friday, April 4, 2025 12pm to 1:30pm Central Time (UTC-6) Register for the Zoom meeting at: https://tinyurl.com/slaonline2 This online panel gathers several established linguistic anthropologists and asks them to share “lessons learned” from their own career experiences.  Topics will include matters such as: job hunting, precarity, the tenure clock, publish or… Read More »What I Wish I Knew Then… Reflections on Building a Career in Linguistic Anthropology

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]]> 8073 Trump 2.0, reader submissions https://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/2025/03/24/trump-2-0-reader-submissions/ Mon, 24 Mar 2025 14:11:05 +0000 https://linguisticanthropology.org/?p=8071 More scholars of language on Trump and Trumpism Send us yours to be added! Sorry Not Sorry: Political Apology in the Age of Trump Jan David Hauck Teruko Mitsuhara Glottopolítica Y Trump Presentación José del Valle El lenguaje muro: Racismo lingüístico de Donald Trump Lara Alonso Breves alcances sobre el léxico tabú y algunos de… Read More »Trump 2.0, reader submissions

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]]> 8071 A Reading List for Trump 2.0 https://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/2025/01/12/a-reading-list-for-trump-2-0/ Sun, 12 Jan 2025 13:26:06 +0000 https://linguisticanthropology.org/?p=7643 For those interested in what linguistic anthropology can tell us about Trump and Trumpism, SLA digital media recommends: On Trump himself: Janet McIntosh and Norma Mendoza Denton’s excellent edited volume Language in the Trump Era https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/language-in-the-trump-era/DD75FE0F40DE2156DFAEC7E36F6F82CE Kira Hall, Donna Goldstein and Matthew Ingram’s fantastic The Hands of Donald Trump https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.14318/hau6.2.009 On Digital Media and Political… Read More »A Reading List for Trump 2.0

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]]> 7643 What Does Free Speech Discourse Do? An SLA Online Discussion https://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/2025/01/09/what-does-free-speech-discourse-do-an-sla-online-discussion/ Fri, 10 Jan 2025 06:17:42 +0000 https://linguisticanthropology.org/?p=7641 Please join the Society for Linguistic Anthropology for this important conversation, the first installment of its SLA Online programming. What Does Free Speech Discourse Do? An SLA Online Discussion Friday, January 24, 2025 – 11 AM to 12:30 PM CT  This panel gathers a mix of scholars from within and without the field of linguistic… Read More »What Does Free Speech Discourse Do? An SLA Online Discussion

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