2025 Language, Conflict, and Peace-making Symposium

Held during the 2025 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia,
the program description for the symposium is provided below.

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Language, Conflict, and Peace-making Symposium

This three-part, six-session symposium brings together linguistic scholarship and restorative justice practices in a unique Annual Meeting event. Attendees are cordially invited to attend more than one of the symposium sessions.

• The opening panel will explore discursive devices that reveal the power of words to divide or build bridges.

• Following the opening panel will be four sessions of "peace-making circles," designed to allow us to consider how language has been used for harm or healing in our own and others' lives. (See below for a description of circles.)

• The third part moves the symposium 'from talk to action'. We will be working together to share insights and reflections about the relevance of our own expertise in linguistics to advance our understanding of the dynamic and shifting role of language in conflict and peace-making, and to bring about positive change. 

The symposium speaks to efforts to make the field of linguistics and the LSA itself more inclusive, as well as address the current divisions in our country, and the ongoing violence in the Middle East and other parts of the world. We are not under any illusion that we will solve any of these conflicts through our discussions; we are gathering to draw on linguistic expertise and restorative justice processes to deepen our understanding, our insight, and to find a way toward each other. That, in itself, represents a step forward. 

 

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PART ONE.  Session 1. Language, conflict, and peace-making: contributions from linguistics and the philosophy of language

Language (in all its modalities) is at the heart of both onflict and peace-making. Conflict and resolution play out in and through language across political, geographic, religious, gender-based, racial/ethnic, psychological, and trauma-fueled dimensions. Our stories of self and other, us and them, are all constructed with language. 

This panel brings together linguists and langauge philosophers whose work addresses different facets of language, conflict, and peace-making. The panelists will examine the power of language in shaping reality and identify and will discuss discursive devices that many feel an urgent need to understand. Particular emphasis in the panel will be on future directions for research in this critical area. 

 

Lynne Tirrell, Professor of Philosophy, University of Connecticut

Tirrell’s research concerns issues at the intersection of philosophy of language with social and political philosophy. She focuses on the ways linguistic practices influence or shape social  justice or facilitate injustice, how these practices enhance or violate human rights. During 2018-2019, she was a Fellow in Residence at the UConn Humanities Institute, to write a book on Toxic Speech (under contract with Oxford University Press). This project uses concepts and theories from philosophy of language and social epidemiology, developing an epidemiology of discursive toxicity. This grows from her work on the role of language in genocidal development, execution and in its aftermath, best found in “Genocidal Language Games” (2012). A series of her papers on toxic speech have already been published, including “Toxic Speech” in Philosophical Topics 2017, “Toxic Speech: Inoculations and Antidotes” in Southern J. of Philosophy 2018, “Toxic Misogyny and the Limits of Counter-Speech,” Fordham Law Review, 2019 and “Discursive Epidemiology: Two Models” in The Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume XCV, 2021.

 

David Beaver, Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy, Director of Cognitive Sciences Program, The University of Texas at Austin

Beaver's research and teaching concerns linguistic meaning, an area traditionally subdivided into two subfields, semantics and pragmatics. The methodologies that he uses include computational studies of large corpora of text, experimental work, and theoretical modeling using tools from logic and statistics. The main empirical topics he has worked on are presupposition (how what we take for granted is reflected in what we way), anaphora (how words like pronouns pick up their meaning from prior context), and topic/focus (the way we use melody and other linguistic features to indicate what question is being addressed and what the answer is). 

In The Politics of Language (2023, Princeton University Press), David Beaver and Jason Stanley explore the concept of language as resonance, with critical implications for understanding "phenomena that defy standard frameworks in linguistics and philosophy of language--from dog whistles and covert persuasion to echo chambers and genocidal speech." 

 

Jason Stanley, Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy, Yale University

Stanley is also an honorary professor at the Kyiv School of Economics where his salary supports the Come Back Alive Foundation. His books include Knowledge and Practical Interests  (2005, Oxford University Press), which won the 2007 American Philosophical Association book prize; Language in Context (2007, Oxford University Press), which is a collection of his papers in semantics on the topic of linguistic communication and context; How Propaganda Works (2015, Princeton University Press),winner of the 2016 PROSE award in philosophy, proceeds go to the Prison Policy Initiative; and How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (2018, Penguin Random House).

 

Ahmed Alqassas, Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Linguistics, Georgetown University

 

Alqassas’ research interests include comparative syntax, Arabic linguistics, semantics/pragmatics, morphosyntax, language acquisition, diglossia/variation and discourse. Drawing on comparative data from dialectal and standard Arabic, his research investigates the principles and subconscious computations behind the perennial linguistic landscape shaped by the mental faculty of language. His book publications include A Unified Theory of Polarity Sensitivity: Comparative Syntax of Arabic (Oxford University Press, 2021); and A Multi-locus Analysis of Arabic Negation: Micro-variation in Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard Arabic (Edinburgh University Press, 2019).

 
Jessi Grieser, Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of Michigan

Grieser is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. She is principally interested in the ways that race identity is performed and realized through language. Her book, THE BLACK SIDE OF THE RIVER, with Georgetown University Press, explores a rapidly-gentrifying, historically Black neighborhood of Washington, D.C. to show the ways in which African American discourse practices are invoked in claiming Black space. Her other research interests include online communities, particularly discourse in fan communities, and Mandarin Chinese. 

 
Tracy Conner, Assistant Professor, Northwestern University School of Communication

Tracy Conner is an interdisciplinary linguist who combines theories and methodologies from formal and sociolinguistics as well as sociology and psychology to address issues of linguistic (in)justice and (in)equity. She’s interested in how theoretical descriptions of dialects of English can be extended to impact broader areas such as education, speech pathology and social justice for dialect speakers. Her work in experimental syntax investigates syntax and morphosyntax of African-American  English and ellipsis phenomena. A new stream of research focuses on describing the linguistic properties of gaslighting using tools from semantics and pragmatics as well as theories of language and power.

 
Marlyse Baptista, President’s Distinguished Professor of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania.
The panel and discussion will be moderated by Marlyse Baptista

Baptista is a contact linguist and morphosyntactician specialized in Pidgin and Creole languages (and their source languages), and in theories of language emergence, language contact and change. In her work, she examines the linguistic ecologies and socio-historical factors underlying the genesis of Creole languages. She has a particular interest in cognition and theoretical models of language contact & language emergence. With collaborators, she uses experimental methods (involving artificial language learning) to investigate how languages and their speakers converge, diverge and innovate in multilingual settings.

PART TWO. Sessions 2 through 5. Listening Circles: Exploring language, conflict, and peace-makng wiithin and between four sets of lived experiences

The second part of the symposium will feature four listening circles.  What are listening circles?

According to the International Institute for Restorative Practices, “listening circles are… designed to help people process an event or issue that poses a challenge or harm to their communities or has impacted people in a significant way. They are voluntary, community-oriented forums aimed at providing an equitable opportunity for all attendees to have voice… They have roots in indigenous cultures and are backed by research in interdisciplinary studies.”

Circles use a format that is very different from ones familiar in academia or industry.  They emphasize slowing down and listening. They are not invitations to dialogue, debate or lecture.  They are an opportunity to listen and to be heard in a shared, equitable space. There are no spectators: all who come are asked to actively take part, and to follow a set of common ground rules.

Watch this video (4:00) from the Center for Ethical Leadership in Seattle to learn more about listening circles. 

The four symposium listening circles invite participants to voice and consider how language has been used for harm and healing.  We center the experiences of people whose voices have often gone unheard, both in history and today. The purpose of the circles is to deeply listen, acknowledging the dignity and validity of lived experiences and feelings, and in so doing, to allow space for a sense of shared story to emerge.

The listening circles will focus on the experiences of four groups who have been systematically silenced or have experienced oppression across history: Indigenous/Native American, Arab/Palestinian, Black/African American, and Jewish/Israeli experiences. All participants, regardless of background, will be encouraged to consider how their own racialized identity and place in systems of power have impacted their experiences and understandings. Any Annual Meeting attendee can express interest in attending any of the listening circles, regardless of their personal background or identity. Each listening circle will be limited to 10-15 participants who will be guided through a series of prompts by a team of trained circle-keepers. A key aspect of listening circles is the opportunity to hear how different people’s experiences overlap and diverge, and to gain understanding through that process. Selected participants will receive an invitation to attend one or more listing circles.

Listening Circle Facilitators

Co-leading the listening circles on language, conflict and peace-making in the context of Indigenous/Native American and Black/African American experiences

 
Winona Wynn, Professor, Heritage University 

Wynn (Assiniboine/Sioux Tribe) is a professor of language and literature and Mellon & Leadership Alliance Coordinator at Heritage University in Toppenish, Washington. Her areas of specialization are cultural identity and Native American education, with an emphasis on indigenous community research methodologies. Wynn grew up participating in a range of types of circles as a cultural practice deeply rooted in tradition. She has also served her relatives in the Yakama Nation for over 18 years, using circles in both higher education and cultural contexts.  

 
Alicia Beckford Wassink, Professor of Linguistics, University of Washington

Wassink’s research interests lie in sociolinguistics, sociophonetics,  and creole linguistics. Prof. Wassink’s languages of study include underrepresented varieties of English and the Jamaican Creole language. Wassink is trained in facilitation and circle-keeping. She has 10 years of experience working as a racial justice leader in her community,  leading monthly circles for the past 3 years and serving as a restorative dialogue facilitator.

Co-leading the listening circles on language, conflict and peace-making in the context of Arab/Palestinian and Jewish/Israeli experiences

 
Hamze Awawde, Palestinian Peace Activist

Prior to October 7, Awawde worked for Hands of Peace, where he led listening circles for Palestinian and Israeli teenagers. In the past year, Awawde has been traveling across Europe and the United States speaking out about the need to find a path for peace for all peoples in the Middle East. He recently spoke at UCLA and Stanford, and the NYC Chapter of Standing Together. He was interviewed on RAW, a podcast hosted by a Jewish Israeli citizen about "navigating inner life since October 7” and in a CNN interview with Christiane Amanpour with Magen Inon, whose parents were killed on October 7.

 
Anne Hilb, Founding Director, Graymake 

Hilb spent her early career in the non-profit world before moving into a consulting role for government, corporate and not-for-profit entities. She has extensive training and experience in circle work. She describes her background this way: “As a Jew by both birth and by Choice due to my Patrilineal identity, I am extremely lucky to have grown up in a home of difference having had parents and a community of extremely different values, faiths, politics, socioeconomics, etc. Though this was painful at times; as difference is, it has taught me to sit comfortably in tension because it is what I know. Weaving optimism and empathy while sitting with what's coming up is something I do well.”

PART THREE. Session 6. Reflection and Intention-setting

This session will conclude the 2025 Language, Conflict, and Peace-making Symposium, but its purpose is provide a space for reflection and to potentially catalyze future action. The session will bring speakers from Session 1 and circle-keepers from the listening circles together to give anyone who attended a prior symposium session the opportunity to reflect on what they’ve learned and experienced, beginning individually. Then options for meeting in affinity groups for reflecting on the symposium and finding closure. There will also be options for small group meetings with others who are setting similar intentions for future action to focus their plans at whatever level they have chosen, from their own individual lives, their families, communities, workplaces/academic departments/classrooms, and research agendas.