Online workshop with Dr. Aris Clemons (University of Tennessee, Knoxville)

Sophie Whittle

Dr. Aris Moreno Clemons: "They Spanish, They Ain't Black!" Language and Culture Sharing in the (De)Construction of Blackness

On Tuesday 15th June, 3.30pm BST, all are welcome to attend a workshop led by Dr. Aris Moreno Clemons from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (<a href="https://twitter.com/ClemonsAris" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">@ClemonsAris</a>) for an instalment in the series named “Centring Anti-Racist Scholarship in the Linguistics Curriculum”, which will continue discussions around linguistic and racial justice in the School of English, The University of Sheffield. The workshop will begin with a talk by Dr. Clemons titled: ‘“They Spanish, They Ain’t Black!” Language and Culture Sharing in the (De)Construction of Blackness’. In the final hour of the workshop, Dr. Clemons will be leading a session discussing current linguistic debates in raciolinguistics, drawing on her own research in the field; fostering an ethos of anti-racism in linguistics; and highlighting privileges within certain positionalities and linguistic methodologies.All students, researchers, and staff members are welcome to attend, regardless of your Department and University, particularly as the aim is to be as interdisciplinary and collaborative in our discussions as possible.This event has been generously funded by the Linguistic Association of Great Britain&#x27;s Student Committee (<a href="https://twitter.com/LAGBSC" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">@LAGBSC</a>).Schedule of the afternoon (BST):3.30 – 4.30pm: Talk by Dr. Clemons titled: ‘“They Spanish, They Ain’t Black!” Language and Culture Sharing in the (De)Construction of Blackness’4.30 – 4.50pm: Q&amp;A following the talk4.50 – 5pm: Comfort break5 – 6pm: Workshop discussion – &#x27;Linguistics in a hyperracialized society: Fostering an ethos of anti-racism in language research&#x27;Abstract for the talk: Vally Lytra (2016) asks, “how is ethnic identity imagined and performed but also imposed in discourse and social activity? What is the role of the nation-state and its institutions, such as schools and the media, in the social reproduction of ethnic categorization? Whose linguistic and identity practices are considered authentic and whose are not, and who decides&#x27;&#x27; (p.131)? In this project, I extend Lytra&#x27;s question by asking in what ways projects of panethnicity become imagined within transnational racial frames, especially within the confines of an educational institution. The current study presents a critical race and anthro-political linguistic ethnography of three significant moments of linguistic policing in the planning, execution, and aftermath of a Black History Month show at a high school with a highly heterogeneous population of Black subjectivities. Two main research questions guide the paper. First, I ask how languages (Dominican Spanish and Black English) and cultures are shared and contested in the service of ethno-raciolinguistic development for Afro-Caribbeans in U.S. contexts. In asking this question, I contend with the embodied experiences of Blackness that permit linguistic heterogeneity within Black racializations for certain bilingual speakers over others (e.g Haitian Creole vs Spanish). Secondly, I ask how schools allow for the construction and negotiation of ethno-racial identity through the implementation and direction of a school-sponsored activity. In exploring this activity, as part of the school culture, I am able to interrogate pedagogical and policy impacts on the construction of identity boundaries for heterogeneous Black subjects.Ultimately, I look to theorize about the ways that language informs ethno-racial developments among a group of students who represent differing Black subjectivities. Further, I use these moments to understand how school decision making and implementation (or lack thereof) of programming is implicated in the fashioning of self and others for students. Using the annual Black History Month show as an anchor, I first consider how racial scripts and the negotiation of space provide a basis for the creation of boundaries around identity categories for students who sit at the margins of several ethnoracial categories. I then examine the ways in which school policies and practices promote the active erasure of Blackness as a central element of Latinidad. And lastly, I reflect on the implementation of culturally relevant pedagogies and practices within school settings with highly heterogeneous populations, despite institutional classificatory practices that would mark the population as homogeneously Black and Hispanic as mutually exclusive categories.Dr. Clemons&#x27; biography:Dr. Aris Moreno Clemons is an Assistant Professor of Hispanic Linguistics in the Department of Modern Foreign Languages at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese as well as a Graduate Portfolio in Mexican American and Latina/o Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. She earned her MA in linguistic theory from Syracuse University in 2012 and continued her career as a high school Spanish teacher and administrator in Brooklyn, NY until 2016. Originally from the San Francisco bay area, Aris was raised by a group of social activists who significantly impacted her commitment to justice for both linguistically and racially minoritized students. This formation has spurred her interest in culturally sustaining pedagogies as well as her commitment to mentoring students traditionally underrepresented in the academy. As a scholar of language and race, her research examines how socially constructed categories are concretized in the public psyche. In particular, her work explores the impact of racial and linguistic ideologies and attitudes on the construction of ‘self’ at the individual and community level. Drawing on data from members of the emergent pan-ethnic grouping of Afro-Latinxs, her research problematizes racial and linguistic essentializations that result in the marginalization and further erasure of certain identities and the (re)constitution of colonially formed social hierarchies within educational contexts.More details on the workshop discussion:In this workshop, I call attention to the ever increasing calls for linguistic justice, decolonization of language studies, and increased diversity and inclusion within the field of linguistics. Acknowledging and responding to the recent perspectives publications in the premier journal, Language, I argue that beyond position statements on race and increased diversity, antiracist scholarship requires transparent research subjectivities and an acknowledgment of the traditional privileging of certain positionalities and methodologies. Through a discussion of current linguistic debates, my research trajectory, and the race-based perspectives in my work, I advocate for collaborative research in the creation of more nuanced scholarship to challenge social injustices within the academy and within our society. More importantly, I speak about the ways that language studies can aid in the deconstruction of racial and pan-ethnic categories that have served to strengthen systems built on colonial frames of power.As an activity, I walk participants through the use of social media data in the construction of linguistic corpora that attend to the sociocultural, historic, and racialized contexts of the content produced. Participants learn how to apply a raciolinguistic perspective to a set of data in a systematized manner.Please send any questions for Dr. Clemons to Sophie Whittle (swhittle2@sheffield.ac.uk). If you have any questions about the event’s organisations, please feel free to email Sophie.

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Online workshop with Dr. Aris Clemons (University of Tennessee, Knoxville)

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Online workshop with Dr. Aris Clemons (University of Tennessee, Knoxville)

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