Seminar in Linguistic Anthropology (484-0-1)

Topic

Language & Migration

Instructors

Doris S. Warriner

Meeting Info

University Library 3722: Wed 2:00PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

This graduate seminar explores and theorizes the dynamic relationship between language and migration from an anthropological perspective. We explore the role of language in (im)mobility, diaspora, globalization, neoliberalism, colonization, nation-state building, and social inequality. And we focus on the lived experiences, autobiographical accounts, and imagined futures of people who migrate, never migrate, or return home. One goal of the course is to understand the ways that language practices, ideologies, communities and initiatives are mobilized and/or reconstituted in specific social and cultural contexts. Another goal of the course is to evaluate how ethnography and/or the close analysis of discourse might illuminate the cultural, social, phenomenological, and embodied dimensions of human mobility. We read and discuss ethnographies of mobility and migration, and we analyze interaction and accounts of interethnic encounters. Major assignments include weekly readings, weekly discussions, an oral presentation, and a research paper. Permission of the instructor is required for students outside of anthropology.

Class Materials (Required)

Arnold, L. (2024). Living together across borders: Communicative Care in Transnational Salvadoran Families. Oxford University Press. 248 pages. ISBN: 9780197755730 (hardcover) | 9780197755747 (paperback) | 978-0197755761 (epub)

Dick, H. P. (2019). Words of Passage: National Longing and the Imagined Lives of Mexican Migrants. University of Texas Press. 238 pages. ISBN: 9781477314029 (paperback | 9781477314043 (epub)

Emlen, N. Q. (2020). Language, coffee, and migration on an Andean-Amazonian frontier. University of Arizona Press. 296 pages. ISBN: 9780816540709 (hardcover) | 9780816541355 (ebook)

Class Materials (Suggested)

Other required readings will be available via Canvas.