Annual Committee Reports--2000

In addition to the annual committee meeting at the LSA, during the fall semester, the committee had two email meetings: one meeting late in August, and another late in October.

We proposed a revision to CELP's mission statement. The revised statement adds a clause recommending that academic institutions be encouraged to hire faculty with commitments to endangered language research, promotion.
Committee member Jonathan Bobaljik wrote a letter to UNESCO requesting information about the status of grants for endangered language research that were awarded some time ago by UNESCO, but have still not been received by awardees. This letter was sent in CELP's name to UNESCO as well as to the heads of a number of our sister organizations. We have since received responses to this letter from Prof. Steven Wurm and from Mr. Maurice Aymard, Secretary-General of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies (CIPSH). Our understanding, based on this correspondence, is that UNESCO's program for research on endangered languages is defunct, with no signs of resuscitation in the near future.
We voted not to use our funds to help found a new journal, Himalayan Linguistics.
We decided to devote a substantial portion of the funds from our budget to a small awards ($100-$200) program, the purpose of which will be to help needy applicants with the costs of attending professional conferences or workshops at which they will give papers. Priority is to be given to those giving papers that meet the following criteria (with no special ranking): (1) native speakers or community members engaged in linguistic work and/or language maintenance or planning; (2) grad students working on an endangered language; (3) scholars not based in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, or New Zealand working on an endangered language and who have restricted access to funds. Examples of possible uses for CELP awards: (1) help with airfare to relevant conferences, (2) registration for the annual LSA meeting, (3) to enhance a scholarship for a grad student to the LSA Summer Institute, help with material or transportation costs associated with a grad student's fieldwork.
We asked the LSA to provide CELP with its own line on the yearly dues form, in the place where members are invited to contribute to our committees and various funds.

The main business was to consider a request from the Endangered Language Fund to co-staff a booth at the upcoming LSA annual meeting in Washington, DC. The committee decided that it would not be appropriate at this time to enter into such a partnership. Jonathan Bobaljik has created a web resource for funding opportunities, as part of the Endangered Languages Homepage on Linguist.

The workshop was hosted by Exploration 2000 and organized by Steven Bird and Gary Simons at the University of Pennsylvania, 12-15 December 2000. At the invitation of the organizers, the CELP chair participated on two panels, (1) Legal, Ethical, and Policy Issues Concerning the Recording and Publication of Primary Language Materials and (2) Community Infrastructure. (Megan J. Crowhurst)

Organizing the "Reading and Dialects" parasession held on 4 January 2001 immediately before the start of the LSA Annual Meeting. The session was cosponsored by the Center for Applied Linguistics.
Exploring possibilities for collaboration between the LSA and the College Board on the Advanced Placement English language exams.
Developing public awareness of dialects. Committee member Kirk Hazen's West Virginia Dialect Project spawned a number of articles in newspapers and magazines.
Strengthening ties with the Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar (thanks to the efforts of Rebecca Wheeler).

The committee met at the January 2000 LSA Annual Meeting and discussed a number of issues via email during the year. Items discussed during the year included:

setting up a website for CEDL and establishing a link to the LSA website
working with community schools to inform teachers and students about minority languages and dialects
working with the LSA Committee on Language in the School Curriculum to find out about relationships that committee has with schools
continuing the discussion about fair and accurate reporting of data from minority languages and dialects
establishing a CEDL fund that might be used to assist minority student linguists
mentoring minority faculty and graduate students
starting an information bank where people can report projects related to CEDL
participating in rap session to be held at the 2001 LSA Linguistic Institute.

(Lisa Green)

Regularly Scheduled Meetings. During 2000, COSWL held five email meetings: 1/24-2/3; 3/20-4/3; 5/31-6/16; 8/19-9/17; 11/27-12/6. In addition to participating in these formal meetings, COSWL members were also in frequent electronic contact regarding specific projects.

2000 LSA Meeting (Chicago). COSWL sponsored two events: a breakfast meeting and a symposium composed of women who are major figures in modern linguistics. The speakers were Jean Berko-Gleason, Penny Eckert, Janet Dean Fodor, and Ilse Lehiste. Our fifth invited speaker, Victoria Fromkin, was unable to attend due to illness. The symposium was organized to commemorate the 25th anniversary of COSWL and was followed by a celebratory gala. COSWL would like to thank Marianna Di Paolo, Jennifer Hay, and Jeri Jaeger for organizing the symposium, and Susan Fischer and Scott Kiesling for planning the gala.

2001 LSA Meeting (Washington, DC). The Program Committee approved a proposal for a symposium entitled 'The Breadth and Diversity of Language and Gender Research'. The event was organized by Scott Kiesling, Marianna Di Paolo, Norma Mendoza-Denton, and Carlota Smith to highlight recent work in language and gender and to increase the visibility of such research at the LSA.

Mission Statement Change. The Executive Committee approved COSWL's proposed change to its mission statement. The statement was changed from: 'To monitor the status of women in linguistics, with particular focus on issues of discrimination, harassment, and advancement' to 'To monitor and advance the status of women in linguistics.'

Institutional Survey. The committee hired Mary Rose to bring together the results of the 1997 surveys in a common format and to report on the findings.

Role of Undergraduate Linguistics Courses. Miriam Meyerhoff and Carlota Smith began a project to look at the role of language and gender courses, which may often be used as high volume undergraduate courses and fall disproportionately on the shoulders of women and junior faculty.

Syllabus Collection. Scott Kiesling coordinated an update of the Language and gender syllabi, which was originally gathered in 1993. A new webpage containing the updated information is under preparation. Those wishing to contribute a syllabus to this collection should contact the new coordinator, Robin Queen, at: rqueen@umich.edu.

COSWL Website. Maintained by Monica Macaulay and accessed from the LSA home page, the website contains COSWL project information, a link to the current language and gender syllabus collection, language and gender conference announcements, and other information.

Brochure. Mary Rose updated and produced the COSWL brochure which will be distributed at the LSA Annual Meeting.

2001 LSA Linguistic Institute. COSWL will sponsor a series of workshops addressing the skills needed to survive and succeed in the linguistics profession. Each of six workshops, held once a week for the duration of the Institute, will focus on a different topic, including ways of overcoming common obstacles. Norma Mendoza-Denton is coordinating the series with help from Maryam Bakht-Rofheart, Jennifer Hay, Ken Lacy, Monica Macaulay, and Mary Rose.

COSWL wishes to solicit financial contributions from members who would like to help sponsor these workshops, both in terms of supporting the student onsite coordinators, Maryam Bakht-Rofheart and Ken Lacy, and covering food, xeroxing, and other administrative costs. Donors will be acknowledged in our workshop materials and in the LSA Bulletin. Please send contributions earmarked for the COSWL Summer Institute Workshop Fund to the LSA Secretariat.

We are grateful for the contributions of those who are rotating off the committee after 2000: Jennifer Hay, Christine Kamprath, and Scott Kiesling. We are pleased that Stefanie Jannedy, Robin Queen, and Maryam Bakht-Rofheart have agreed to serve on the committee beginning in January 2001. Co-chairs will be Jeri Jaeger and Norma Mendoza-Denton. (Jennifer Hay/Jeri Jaeger)