Congreso, coloquio o simposio

A call for social justice in the linguistic arena is not new since Charity Hudley (2008) proposed that researchers became instruments of social change. Many applied linguistics have then dedicated their studies to explore how their research can help minority groups resist and contest the “invented” homogeneity (Piller, 2016). Social justice is a necessary reason to reconsider our own perceptions about linguistic diversity and how to avoid the reproduction of marginalization and exclusion (Rosa & Flores, 2023) that perpetuate colonial practices among language users. On the other hand, Bucholtz et al. (2014: 145), define sociolinguistic justice as advocating for “self- determination for linguistically subordinated individuals and groups in sociopolitical struggles over language.” Further, Ramos Pellicia, MacGregor-Mendoza & Niño-Murcia (2024) explain that sociolinguistic justice can be applied to community issues, particularly in multilingual communities, for instance, the erasure that lack of public signage in their linguistic landscape reflect the character of the neighborhood where they live (Ramos Pellicia, MacGregor-Mendoza & Nieto-Murcia (2024 xi).

Linguistic landscapes are non-neutral places where language, culture, and identity –with all the ideology that they bring together- unequivocally intertwine (Blackwood, Lanza & Woldemariam, 2016; Gubitosi & Ramos Pellicia, 2021) showing the complex and dynamic reality of languages signages in a community as it reflects not only the hegemonic and minoritized languages but also the agency of those who produce these signs. Linguistic landscapes are the front line where social justice is either permitted or denied and, therefore, should be scrutinized with a new perspective.

This panel discussion will make novel contributions to the field of pragmatics in action and language advocacy focusing on the communicative, interactional, and discursive practices that social actors adopt to build their linguistic landscapes. We intend to answer the following research questions: how can we promote social change in the linguistic landscape? How linguistic landscapes can encourage social equity in multilingual, multi-diverse and/or transnational settings? We welcome submissions that examine social justice in the linguistic landscape from a theoretical or empirical point of view with special emphasis on how social justice is offered/ denied/ rejected in school’s contexts, health providers, religion services, government facilities, etc.

References:
Blackwood, R., Lanza, E. & Woldemariam, H. (2016). Negotiating and contesting identities in linguistic landscapes. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Bucholtz, M., Lopez, A., Mojarro, A., Skapoulli, E., VanderStouwe, C., and Warner- Garcia, S. 2014. Sociolinguistic justice in schools: Student researchers as linguistic experts. Language and Linguistics Compass, 8(4), 144– 157.
Charity Hudley A. H. (2008). Linguists as agents for social change. Language and Linguistics Compass, 2(5), 923–939.
Gubitosi, P. & Ramos Pellicia, M. (2021). Introduction: Uncovering the voice of minority groups. In Linguistic Landscape in the Spanish-speaking World, edited by P. Gubitosi & M. Ramos Pellicia, pp. 1-16. Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, vol. 35. Cambridge, MA: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Piller, I. (2016). Linguistic diversity and social justice: An introduction to Applied Sociolinguistics. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ramos Pellicia, M., MacGregor-Mendoza, P & Niño-Murcia, M. (Eds) (2024) Advocating for Sociolinguistic Justice in the United States Empowering Spanish- speaking Communities. Routledge (forthcoming).
Rosa, J. & Flores, N. (2023). Rethinking language barriers & Social justice from a raciolinguistic perspective. Dædalus. Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences., 52(3): 99-114.

Patricia Gubitosi, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Michelle Ramos Pellicia, California State University San Marcos