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Decolonizing Linguistics, the companion volume to Inclusion in Linguistics, is designed to uncover and intervene in the history and ongoing legacy of colonization and colonial thinking in linguistics and related fields. Taken together, the two volumes are the first comprehensive, action-oriented, book-length discussions of how to advance social justice in all aspects of the discipline.
The introduction to Decolonizing Linguistics theorizes decolonization as the process of centering Black, Native, and Indigenous perspectives, describes the extensive dialogic and collaborative process through which the volume was developed, and lays out key principles for decolonizing linguistic research and teaching. The twenty chapters cover a wide range of languages and linguistic contexts (e.g., Bantu languages, Creoles, Dominican Spanish, Francophone Africa, Zapotec) as well as various disciplines and subfields (applied linguistics, communication, historical linguistics, language documentation and revitalization/reclamation, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, syntax).
Contributors address such topics as refusing settler-colonial practices and centering community goals in research on Indigenous languages; decolonizing research partnerships between the Global South and the Global North; and prioritizing Black Diasporic perspectives in linguistics. The volume's conclusion lays out specific actions that linguists can take through research, teaching, and institutional structures to refuse coloniality in linguistics and to move the field toward a decolonized future.
Decolonizing Linguistics, the companion volume to Inclusion in Linguistics, is designed to uncover and intervene in the history and ongoing legacy of colonization and colonial thinking in linguistics and related fields. Taken together, the two volumes are the first comprehensive, action-oriented, book-length discussions of how to advance social justice in all aspects of the discipline.
Preface Introduction: Decolonizing Linguistics Anne H. Charity Hudley,
Ignacio L. Montoya, Christine Mallinson, and Mary Bucholtz Part 1:
Decolonizing Linguistics and the Academy
1. Manifestations of Colonialism in
Linguistics and Opportunities for Decolonization Through Refusal Ignacio L.
Montoya
2. Racialization, Language Science, and Nineteenth-Century
Anthropometrics Margaret Thomas
3. The Colonial Geography of Linguistics: A
View from the Caribbean Ben Braithwaite and Kristian Ali
4. We Like the Idea
of You But Not the Reality of You: The Whole Scholar as Disruptor of Default
Colonial Practices in Linguistics Nicté Fuller Medina
5. Apolitical
Linguistics Doesn> 't Exist, and It Shouldn> 't: Developing a Black Feminist
Praxis Toward Political Transparency Aris Moreno Clemons
6. Unpacking
Experiences of Racism in European Applied Linguistics Kamran Khan
7.
Centering Race and Multilingualism in French Linguistics Maya Angela Smith
8.
Decolonizing (Psycho)linguistics Means Dropping the Language Gap Rhetoric
Megan Figueroa Part 2: Decolonizing Methods of Teaching and Research
9. From
Gatekeeping to Inclusion in the Introductory Linguistics Curriculum:
Decolonizing Our Teaching, Our Psyches, Our Institutions, and Our Field
Lynnette Arnold
10. Decolonizing Historical Linguistics in the Classroom and
Beyond Claire Bowern and Rikker Dockum
11. Towards a Decolonial Syntax:
Research, Teaching, Publishing Hannah Gibson, Kyle Jerro, Savithry
Namboodiripad, and Kristina Riedel
12. Decolonising Methodologies Through
Collaboration: Reflections on Partnerships and Funding Flows from Working
Between the South and the North Rajendra Chetty, Hannah Gibson, and Colin
Reilly
13. Open Methods: Decolonizing (or Not) Research Methods in
Linguistics Dan Villarreal and Lauren Collister
14. Revitalizing Attitudes
Toward Creole Languages Ariana Bancu, Joy P. G. Peltier, Felicia Bisnath,
Danielle Burgess, Sophia Eakins, Wilkinson Daniel Wong Gonzales, Moira
Saltzman, Yourdanis Sedarous, Alicia Stevers, and Marlyse Baptista Part 3:
Decolonizing Research by Centering Community and Activism
15. Solidarity and
Collectivity in Decolonizing Linguistics: A Black Diasporic Perspective Anne
H. Charity Hudley, Christine Mallinson, Kahdeidra Monét Martin, Aris Moreno
Clemons, L. J. Randolph Jr., Mary Bucholtz, Kendra Calhoun, Shenika
Hankerson, Joy P. G. Peltier, Jamie A. Thomas, Deana Lacy McQuitty, and Kara
Seidel
16. Growing a Bigger Linguistics Through a Zapotec Agenda: The Ticha
Project May Helena Plumb, Alejandra Dubcovsky, Moisés García Guzmán, Brook
Danielle Lillehaugen, and Felipe H. Lopez
17. Decolonizing Creolistics
Through Popular Culture: The Case of Dancehall Rashana Vikara Lydner
18.
Prioritizing Community Partners> ' Goals in Projects to Support Indigenous
Language Revitalization Katherine J. Riestenberg, Ally Freemond, Brook
Danielle Lillehaugen, and Jonathan N. Washington
19. Promoting Decolonized
Classrooms Through an Introductory Linguistics Course for Future Teachers in
Alaska Ève Ryan, Matt Ford, and Giovanna Wilde
20. An Interdisciplinary
Approach to Language Activism from Community Colleges: Linguistics Meets
Communication Studies Carlos de Cuba, Poppy Slocum, and Laura Spinu
Conclusion: Decolonizing Linguistics Anne H. Charity Hudley, Ignacio L.
Montoya, Christine Mallinson, and Mary Bucholtz
Anne H. Charity Hudley is Associate Dean of Educational Affairs, Stanford Graduate School of Education, the Bonnie Katz Tenenbaum Professor of Education and Professor of African and African American Studies & Linguistics, by courtesy. She is also director of the Stanford Black Academic Development Lab.
Christine Mallinson is the 2023-24 Lipitz Distinguished Professor of the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Professor in the Language, Literacy, and Culture Program, and Affiliate Professor in the Department of Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies, where she is also Director of the Center for Social Science Scholarship and Special Assistant for Research & Creative Achievement in the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Mary Bucholtz is Professor in Department of Linguistics and Director of the Center for California Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she is also affiliated with the Departments of Anthropology, Education, Feminist Studies, and Spanish and Portuguese as well as the Programs in Latin American and Iberian Studies and in Comparative Literature.
