17 Apr Language, social order and social justice
Monica Heller (Education & Anthropology, University of Toronto)
Friday, April 17 / 1:30 PM
McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB
Monica Heller’s LISO talk is a special tribute to John Gumperz ,whose work focused in large part on the relationship between the making of social difference and the making of social inequality. This interactionist approach sought to link the detailed workings of communicative agency with the sedimented constraints of the institutional structures in which most of the valuable resources in life are produced and distributed. Heller will review Gumperz’ approach to linking the interaction order to institutional order and to social selection, some critiques of this approach, and some ways in which ethnography grounded in political economy has attempted to build on his work while responding productively to his critics.
Monica Heller is a member of the Royal Society of Canada and current President of the American Anthropological Association. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, where she had the privilege of working with John Gumperz. Recently she has published several retrospectives of his work and influence in North America and Europe, including a special issue of Langage et Société, co-edited with Josiane Boutet, an entry in the Handbook of Pragmatics, co-authored with Celia Roberts and Peter Auer, and an article in the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology.
Sponsored by the IHC’s LISO RFG, and the Mellichamp Global Studies Initiative.
Website: http://www.liso.ucsb.edu/