REQUIREMENTS
NOTE: I can only accept hard copies of all written assignments.
REQUIRED AND RECOMMENDED READINGS
Required
A set of course readings available online at ERes (Electronic Reserve; the link is also available on the menu bar above). See the course syllabus distributed in class for the ERes password, or email me. See below for the complete list of readings; see the syllabus for the date each is assigned.
Recommended
For those without any background in language, gender, and sexuality, the following texts are recommended. Readings will not be assigned from these books, but they provide useful background in the field. In addition, a set of recommended course readings is available on ERes.
Eckert, Penelope, & Sally McConnell-Ginet (2003). Language and gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lakoff, Robin Tolmach (2004). Language and woman's place: Text and commentaries. Ed. Mary Bucholtz. Revised and expanded edition. New York: Oxford University Press.
COURSE WEBSITE
This website contains the most up-to-date information about the course, handouts and assignments, and links and references to course readings. Additional copies of the syllabus and requirements can be downloaded from the Assignments and materials page; these and other course materials posted on the site are password-protected for copyright purposes (see the handout distributed in class for the class website password, or email me).
RESOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY
In order to learn more about the field of language and gender studies (which also includes sexuality), you are strongly encouraged to join GALA-L. Although it is the official listserve of the International Gender and Language Association (IGALA), anyone can join and post.
If you are interested in pursuing the study of language, gender, and sexuality, you should become a member of IGALA, which holds a biennial conference and published the journal Gender and Language.
I also maintain the Language and Gender Page; although I haven’t had a chance to update it in a while, it will also give you some information about the field.
At UCSB, you can pursue your interest in gender and sexuality through the Women’s Studies Program. Although linguistics doesn’t currently participate officially in the Ph.D. emphasis in Women’s Studies, you may want to take one or more courses in the program.
RESOURCES FOR SOCIOCULTURAL LINGUISTICS
In addition to materials distributed in class, you may find the website Resources for Sociocultural Linguistics useful for professional socialization into sociocultural linguistics and related fields (the link is also available on the menu bar above). The links for graduate students provide resources as well as tips on a range of professional activities that will be relevant to this course and beyond. Please let me know if there are other topics that you'd like to see addressed on the site.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO DISCUSSION
An important part of your graduate education is the development of your ability to explore ideas with others. It is therefore crucial that you contribute to the discussion during every class period. Don't contribute only when you have a fully worked-out answer in polished form (which is rare for most of us in any case); the classroom is a space where you can try out off-the-wall ideas, ask what you think are stupid questions (but probably aren't), and otherwise take intellectual risks. If group discussion is difficult for you, the reading responses may help you formulate your ideas in advance. If it comes easily to you, please take care not to dominate the floor--make sure others have a chance to participate as well.
READING RESPONSES
Each week you will hand in short written responses to the assigned readings. Your responses should total no more than 1-2 pages total, typed and double-spaced (12pt). Although you may find it helpful to briefly (in a sentence or two) summarize the main argument for your own records, you should go beyond summarizing to evaluate and engage with the author's ideas. You can address any aspect of the readings: raise a question about something that's unclear, add supporting or challenging evidence for an author's argument, link the reading to ideas you've encountered earlier in the class or other classes. Your response should be written in formal academic style.
Responses must address both of the weekly required readings and may optionally discuss any of the recommended readings that you have done for that week.
BOOK REVIEW
You will write an approximately 1,000-word review (comparable to a publishable book review) of a recently published book relevant to the study of language, gender, and sexuality. You have the option of submitting your review for publication in an appropriate journal. Details will be distributed separately.
DATA SESSION OR READING PRESENTATION
In preparation for your final paper (see below), you will present some preliminary materials to the class. Depending on which option you choose for your paper, you may elect either to present a small amount of linguistic data (either from your own research or from other sources such as the media) for collective discussion and analysis in light of the concepts and theories in the assigned readings for that week, or you may present one or two outside readings related to to specific topic in language, gender, and sexuality. You should consult with me as you work on identifying appropriate materials for presentation. More detailed guidelines will be distributed separately.
FINAL PAPER
The final paper is a document of approximately 10-15 double-spaced pages allowing you to go in depth into a particular area of language, gender, and sexuality. Because students will come to the course with different goals, interests, and levels of preparation, the final papers will be highly dindividualized. There are two options: (1) an empirical research paper focusing on data analysis (based on the data you presented in class and perhaps additional data as well); (2) a critical review of the literature on some well-defined topic in language, gender, and sexuality. Details about each option will be distributed separately.
PRESENTATION OF THE FINAL PAPER
During the final week of class, you will report the results of your paper in a 15-minute presentation. Details about the presentation will be distributed separately.
CONFERENCES RELATED TO LANGUAGE, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY
Due to my conference/talk schedule, a film will be shown during the second class meeting. Students are encouraged to attend the Sociolinguistics Fest and the following one-day workshop at Indiana University (June 9-13). Students are also encouraged to submit abstracts to the American Anthropological Association conference in San Francisco (Nov. 19-23; deadline April 1) and the New Ways of Analyzing Variation Conference in Houston (Nov. 6-9; deadline May 31). If you’ll be near New Zealand this summer, you may want to attend the Fifth IGALA Conference in Wellington July 3-5.
ERES READINGS
Required
Barrett, Rusty (2003). Models of gay male identity and the marketing of "gay language" in foreign-language phrasebooks for gay men. Estudios de Sociolingüistica 4(2):533-562.
Besnier, Niko (2003). Crossing gender, mixing languages: The linguistic construction of transgenderism in Tonga. In Janet Holmes & Miriam Meyerhoff, eds., The handbook of language and gender. Oxford: Blackwell. 279-301.
Bucholtz, Mary (forthcoming). From stance to style: Gender, interaction, and indexicality in Mexican immigrant youth slang. In Alexandra Jaffe, ed., Sociolinguistic perspectives on stance. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bucholtz, Mary, & Kira Hall (2004). Theorizing identity in language and sexuality research. Language in Society 33(4):501-547.
Cameron, Deborah (2005). Language, gender, and sexuality: Current issues and new directions. Applied Linguistics 26(4):482-502.
Ehrlich, Susan (1998). The discursive reconstruction of sexual consent. Discourse and Society 9(2):149-171.
Goodwin, Marjorie Harness (2002). Building power asymmetries in girls' interaction. Discourse and Society 13(6):715-730.
Hall, Kira (2003). Exceptional speakers: Contested and problematized gender identities. In Janet Holmes & Miriam Meyerhoff, eds., The handbook of language and gender. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 353-380.
Haney, Peter C. (2003). Bilingual humor, verbal hygiene, and the gendered contradictions of cultural citizenship in early Mexican American comedy. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 13(2):163-188.
Inoue, Miyako (2003). Speech without a speaking body: "Japanese women's language" in translation. Language and Communication 23:315-330.
Jacobs-Huey, Lanita (2006). Constructing and contesting knowledge in women's cross-cultural hair testimonies. In From the kitchen to the parlor: Language and becoming in African American women's hair care. New York: Oxford University Press. 105-128.
Kiesling, Scott Fabius (2005). Homosocial desire in men's talk: Balancing and re-creating cultural discourses of masculinity. Language in Society 34:695-726.
Kitzinger, Celia (2000). Doing feminist conversation analysis. Feminism and Psychology 10(2):163-193.
Kulick, Don (2000). Gay and lesbian language. Annual Review of Anthropology 29:243-285.
Land, Victoria V., & Celia Kitzinger (2005). Speaking as a lesbian: Correcting the heterosexist presumption. Research on Language and Social Interaction 38(4):371-416.
McElhinny, Bonnie (2003). Theorizing gender in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. In Janet Holmes & Miriam Meyerhoff, eds., The handbook of language and gender. Oxford: Blackwell. 21-42.
Mendoza-Denton, Norma (2008). "Muy macha": Gender performances and the avoidance of social injury. In Homegirls: Language and cultural practice among Latina youth gangs. Malden, MA: Blackwell. 148-175.
Podesva, Robert J., Sarah J. Roberts, & Kathryn Campbell-Kibler (2002). Sharing resources and indexing meanings in the production of gay styles. In Kathryn Campbell-Kibler, Robert J. Podesva, Sarah J. Roberts, & Andrew Wong, eds., Language and sexuality: Contesting meaning in theory and practice. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications. 175-190.
Speer, Susan A., & Ceri Parsons (2006). Gatekeeping gender: Some features of the use of hypothetical questions in the psychiatric assessment of transsexual patients. Discourse and Society 18(1):785-812.
Recommended
Barrett, Rusty (1999). Indexing polyphonous identity in the speech of African American drag queens. In Mary Bucholtz, A. C. Liang, & Laurel A. Sutton, eds., Reinventing identities: The gendered self in discourse. New York: Oxford University Press. 313-331.
Bucholtz, Mary (1998). Geek the girl: Language, femininity, and female nerds. In Natasha Warner et al., eds., Gender and belief systems: Proceedings of the fourth Berkeley Women and Language Conference. Berkeley: Berkeley Women and Language Group. 119-131.
Hall, Kira (1995). Lip service on the fantasy lines. In Kira Hall & Mary Bucholtz, eds., Gender articulated: Language and the socially constructed self. New York: Routledge. 183-216.
Hall, Kira (2005). Intertextual sexuality: Parodies of class, identity, and desire in Delhi. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 15(1):125-144.
Livia, Anna (1995). "I ought to throw a Buick at you": Fictional representations of butch/femme speech. In Kira Hall & Mary Bucholtz, eds., Gender articulated: Language and the socially constructed self. New York: Routledge. 245-278.
Ochs, Elinor (1992). Indexing gender. In Alessandro Duranti & Charles Goodwin, eds., Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 335-358.
Yerian, Keli (2002). Strategic constructivism: The discursive body as a site for identity display in women's self-defense courses. In Sarah Benor, Mary Rose, Devyani Sharma, Julie Sweetland, & Qing Zhang, eds., Gendered practices in language. Palo Alto, CA: CSLI Publications. 389-405.