LINGUIST List 3.849

Thu 29 Oct 1992

FYI: Committee on the Status of Women

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1. sally mcconnell-ginet, FURTHER INFO ON COSWL STUDENT PAPER AWARD TASKFORCE

This is a follow-up to the earlier posting asking for taskforce volunteers.

Along with many other provisions, the LSA mandate for the
Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics (COSWL) has,
since its inception, included the charge that COSWL engage in
activities to encourage the scholarly study of language and
gender.

In connection with this charge, COSWL is exploring the
establishment of a prize for the best linguistics paper by a
student on this topic. We have in mind the model
of the AAAL student paper award, as well as models from other
disciplines such as the American Psychological Association's
annual award for the best paper in the psychology of women.

The purpose of a student award would be to draw increased
attention to an area of scholarship that continues to lie
somewhat outside the mainstream of linguistic research, outside
in part because the research is often interdisciplinary in its
methods and in part for reasons of scholarly fashion in
linguistics. Increasing the visibility of language-gender
research within linguistics and offering an opportunity for
considered review of such work by students might also, we think,
help foster excellence in the area.

The Taskforce on a Student Award, for which our earlier listing
sought volunteers, will report its recommendations to COSWL and
that body in turn will make recommendations to the LSA Executive
Committee.

The Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics

Dawn Bates
Edwin Battistella
Victoria Bergvall
Janet Bing
Alice Freed
Sally McConnell-Ginet (Co-chair, 1992)
Bonnie McElhinney
Lynne Murphy
Craige Roberts (Co-chair, 1992)
Susan Steele