The Annual Linguistics Pedagogy Lecture will be given by Donna Jo Napoli, Professor of Linguistics and Social Justice at Swarthmore College.
What’s it all about—this education thing we are doing?
What’s it all about—this education thing we are doing? Certainly, it’s more than simply peering into a box of knowledge, trying to glean some for ourselves, impart some to others, and add more from our own research. Those things are important, essential—but not the sum total. To my way of thinking, the overarching point of universities is not just to grow more knowledge but to use knowledge to improve the way we (the all-inclusive we) live. Language is the business and the passion of linguists. And language touches nearly every human interaction. Linguists are therefore absurdly rich in the number and kind of opportunities that exist to use knowledge to serve the greater good. In this talk I present ways my students and I have been working with the local and global deaf community to enhance language experience for deaf children, from advocacy work to creative arts work. I offer this as an example. Opportunities in linguistics abound, from theoretical to applied areas. We will brainstorm together ideas for ways to serve members of our society linguistically via community collaboration with classes in syntax, semantics, historical linguistics, you name it.
A reception will follow the talk.
