CASCA2014 CFP: Language risk, Language choice and Language rights: The Uncertainty of Language Diversity in Contemporary Anthropological Terrains

PANEL TITLE:
Language risk, Language choice and Language rights:
The Uncertainty of Language Diversity in Contemporary Anthropological
Terrains

Organizers:
Christine Schreyer – University of British Columbia (Okanagan)
Email: Christine.schreyer@ubc.ca

Sarah Shulist – MacEwan University
Email: ShulistS@macewan.ca

Abstract:
The desire to understand and document linguistic diversity has long been a
focus of anthropological research and continues to attract both scholars
and the general public. However, colonization, as well as increasing
globalization, has impacted the security of language diversity throughout
many, if not all, contemporary anthropological terrains. This
panel addresses language risk, language choice, and language rights in the
various locales where we have conducted anthropological research. In
particular, we question whether declaring languages to be "at risk" of
endangerment creates more uncertainty in these communities. We also look
at how uncertainty and ambiguity both shapes and is shaped by the choices
made by speakers of minority languages, and factors into their
understandings of the meaning of these choices. Finally, we discuss how
language rights have been enacted through language use and language
planning (both top-down and bottom-up) as a means of addressing and coping
with linguistic insecurity.

Please e-mail a paper title, abstract (of no more than 150 words),
keywords, and co-authors (if applicable) to Christine and Sarah no later
than January 14th, 2014.