Relationships between Language and Gender from Different Perspectives

Event

Start date: Thursday 23 November 2023

Time: 13.00

End date: Friday 24 November 2023

Time: 12.20

Location: Stockholm University Dpt. of Romance Studies and Classics

International Workshop on Language and Gender

The primary objective of this workshop is to contribute to the broader field of language and gender studies by connecting researchers with ongoing scientific research on language and gender as well as research on language policy-making across various disciplines and geographies.

Simbols "Hen" The Swedish neutral pronoun
Foto: Myskoxen via Wikimedia Commons

The workshop will address the following questions:

  1. In what ways are linguistic practices associated with the construction of gender identities and
    indexing of sexual orientations of the speaker, addressee, or referent?
  2. In what way are language policies, language in education policies, and the regulation of gender-neutral language addressed, received, discussed, and managed in different sociocultural and historical contexts?

The three panels have a clear connection with the research line within the Language and Power Network that deals with the relationship between language, power, and identity creation, as well as connections to ideologies and attitudes.

 

Program

November 23 – Romklass, room C512
 

13:00-14.40: Panel 1: Debates about gendered and neutral forms in diverse geographies

13.00-13.15 Charlotta Seiler Brylla (Professor of German, Stockholm University)
The gender-fair language debate in Germany
13.15-13.30 Nicolai Witthøft (PhD student in French Linguistics, Stockholm University)
The gender-fair language debate in France and Quebec
13.30-13.45 Ben Papadopoulos (PhD student in Spanish Linguistics, University of California Berkeley)
The gender-fair language debate in the US
13.45-14.00 Laura Álvarez López (Professor of Portuguese, Stockholm University)
The gender-fair language debate in Latin-America
14.00-14.15 Questions and wrapping up (Moderator: Karin Milles)

14:15-14.45 Coffee break


14.45-18.00: Panel 2: Presentations of Ph.D. projects

14.45-15.15 Carin Leibring Svedjedal (Ph.D. student in Nordic languages, Uppsala University)
Swedish-speaking transgender people’s self-chosen first names and pronouns
15.15-15.45 Elli van Berlekom (Ph.D. student in Psychology, Stockholm University)
Exposure to the Swedish neopronoun hen facilitates gender categorization beyond the binary
15.45-16.15 Ben Papadopoulos (Ph.D. student in Spanish Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley)
Toward a new theory of gender in language

16.15-16.25 Break

16.25-16.55 Julia Tibblin (Ph.D. student in French Linguistics, Lund University)
Gender-fair forms in French: effects on representation and on processing
16.55-17.25 Nicolai Witthøft (Ph.D. student in French Linguistics, Stockholm University)
Gender-fair French in a foreign-language context: learners’ attitudes, processing, and acquisition
17.25-17.55 Éléonore de Beaumont (Ph.D. student in language Science, University of Lorraine)
Learning a gendered language when one's first language has no gender: from constraint to emancipation
17.55-18.15

Questions and wrapping up (Moderators: Ben Papadopoulos & Nicolai Witthøft)


November 24 - Gula Villan, Minerva
 

9.00-10.30 Panel 3: How is Sweden moving away from binary forms? 

9.00-9.20 Karin Milles (Professor of Swedish, Södertörn University)
Personal pronouns in school - a question of identity, inclusion and icebergs
9.20-9.40 Daniel Wojahn (Ass. Professor of Swedish, Södertörn University)
Attitudes towards the Swedish gender-neutral pronoun hen in public online comments and official language  recommendations (2012-2022)
9.40-10.10 Emma Renström (Ass. Professor in Psychology, Kristianstad University), Marie Gustafsson Sendén (Ass. Professor in Social Psychology, Stockholm University)
Hen – Attitudes, Meaning, and Consequences
10.10-10-30 Questions and wrapping up (Moderators: Laura Álvarez LópezCharlotta Seiler Brylla)

10.30-11.00 Coffee break

11.00-12.20 Identifying possible collaborations (session led by Ben Papadopoulos & Nicolai Witthøft)

 


Please contact Nicolai Witthøft to sign up or get further information