Language And Belonging

This examines a significant aspect of contemporary social life: cultural identities and our linguistic means of constructing them. It combines a theoretical re-assessment of processes of identification with case studies of the discourses of three-generation families living in split-border communities along the former 'Iron Curtain'.

In Tongues: On Longing and Belonging Through Language writers examine their intimate relationship with language in essays that are compelling and captivating. There are over 200 mother tongues spoken in Canada, and at least 5.8 million Canadians use two or more languages at home. This vital anthology opens a dialogue about this unique language diversity and probes the importance of language in our identity and the ways in which it shapes us. In this collection of deeply personal essays, twenty-six writers explore their connection with language, accents, and vocabularies, and contend with the ways they can be used as both bridge and weapon. Some explore the way power and privilege affect language learning, especially the shame and exclusion often felt by non-native English speakers in a white, settler, colonial nation. Some confront the pain of losing a mother tongue or an ancestral language along with the loss of community and highlight the empowerment that comes with reclamation. Others celebrate the joys of learning a new language and the power of connection. All underscore how language can offer transformation and collective healing to various communities. With contributions by: Kamal Al-Solaylee, Jenny Heijun Wills, Karen McBride, Melissa Bull, Leonarda Carranza, Adam Pottle, Kai Cheng Thom, Sigal Samuel, Rebecca Fisseha, Logan Broeckaert, Taslim Jaffer, Ashley Hynd, Jagtar Kaul Atwal, Téa Mutonji, Rowan McCandless, Sahar Golshan, Camila Justino, Amanda Leduc, Ayelet Tsabari, Carrianne Leung, Janet Hong, Danny Ramadan, Sediqa de Meijer, Jónína Kirton, and Eufemia Fantetti.

This volume shows the relevance of the concepts of ‘place’ and ‘belonging’ for understanding the dynamics of identification through language. It also opens up a new terrain for sociolinguistic and linguistic anthropological study, namely the margins. Rural, as well as urbanized areas that are seen as marginal or peripheral to places that are overtly recognized as mixed and hybridized have received relatively little sociolinguistic attention. Yet, people living in these supposedly less ‘spectacular’ margins are not immune to the effects of globalization and rapid technological change. They too constantly form new ensembles from linguistic and cultural resources which they invest with novel, instable, often ambiguous meanings. This volume focusses on the purportedly unspectacular in order to achieve a full understanding of the relation between language, place and belonging. The contributors to this volume, therefore, focus on language practices analyzing them as dialectically related to political-economic processes and language ideologies.

Examining identity in relation to globalization and migration, this book uses narratives and memoirs from contemporary authors who have lived 'in-between' two or more languages. It explores the human desire to find one's 'own place' in new cultural contexts, and looks at the role of language in shaping a sense of belonging in society.

Using local language sources and every important archive, this major history of the formation of Kashmir shows precisely how the Kashmir Valley assumed the position it has come to occupy in postcolonial South Asia."--Jacket.

How Spanish-language radio has influenced American and Latino discourse on key current affairs issues such as citizenship and immigration. Winner, Book of the Year presented by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education Honorable Mention for the 2015 Latino Studies Best Book presented by the Latin American Studies Association The last two decades have produced continued Latino population growth, and marked shifts in both communications and immigration policy. Since the 1990s, Spanish- language radio has dethroned English-language radio stations in major cities across the United States, taking over the number one spot in Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, and New York City. Investigating the cultural and political history of U.S. Spanish-language broadcasts throughout the twentieth century, Sounds of Belonging reveals how these changes have helped Spanish-language radio secure its dominance in the major U.S. radio markets. Bringing together theories on the immigration experience with sound and radio studies, Dolores Inés Casillas documents how Latinos form listening relationships with Spanish-language radio programming. Using a vast array of sources, from print culture and industry journals to sound archives of radio programming, she reflects on institutional growth, the evolution of programming genres, and reception by the radio industry and listeners to map the trajectory of Spanish-language radio, from its grassroots origins to the current corporate-sponsored business it has become. Casillas focuses on Latinos’ use of Spanish-language radio to help navigate their immigrant experiences with U.S. institutions, for example in broadcasting discussions about immigration policies while providing anonymity for a legally vulnerable listenership. Sounds of Belonging proposes that debates of citizenship are not always formal personal appeals but a collective experience heard loudly through broadcast radio.

Certain forms of mobility and multilingualism tend to be portrayed as problematic in the public sphere, while others are considered to be unremarkable. Divided into three thematic sections, this book explores the contestation of spaces and the notion of borders, examines the ways in which heritage and authenticity are linked or challenged, and interrogates the intersections between mobility and hierarchies and the ways that language can be linked to notions of belonging and aspirations for mobility. Based on fieldwork in Africa, Asia, Australasia and Europe, it explores how language functions as both site of struggle and as a means of overcoming struggle. This volume will be of particular interest to scholars taking ethnographic and critical sociolinguistic approaches to the study of language and belonging in the context of globalisation.

"From the time of its inception in Canada, multiculturalism has generated varied reactions, none more starkly than between French and English Canadians. In this groundbreaking new work, Eve Haque examines the Government of Canada's attempt to forge a national policy of unity based on 'multiculturalism within a bilingual framework, ' a formulation that emerged out of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (1963-70). Uncovering how the policies of bilingualism and multiculturalism are inextricably linked, Haque investigates the ways in which they operate together as part of our contemporary national narrative to favour the language and culture of Canada's two 'founding nations' at the expense of other groups. Haque uses previously overlooked archival material, including transcripts of royal commission hearings, memos, and reports, to reveal the conflicts underlying the emergence of this ostensibly seamless policy. By integrating two important areas of scholarly concern -- the evolution and articulation of language rights in Canada, and the history of multiculturalism in the country, Haque provides powerful insight into ongoing asymmetries between Canada's various cultural and linguistic groups."--Publisher's website.

This book weaves intensely personal and evocative stories into a layered autoethnographic text about the author's experience of childhood deafness, sign language and education. It is an important contribution to the study of deaf education, disability and deaf health and well-being.

Wanting to understand how her path is tied to her mother tongue, Anne, a young, multiracial American woman, travels through China, the country of her mother’s birth. Along the way, she tries on different roles—seeker, teacher, student, girlfriend, artist, and daughter—and continually asks herself: Why do I feel called to make this journey? Whether witnessing a Tibetan sky burial, teaching English at a university in Chengdu, visiting her grandmother in LA, or falling in love with a Chinese painter, Anne is always in pursuit of intimacy with others, even as she is all too aware of her silences and separation. For two years, she settles into a comfortable routine in her boyfriend’s apartment and regains fluency in Chinese, a language she spoke as a young child but has used less and less as an adult. Eventually, however, her desire to know herself in other ways surfaces again. She misses speaking English, she feels suffocated by urban, polluted China, and she starts to fall for another man. Ultimately, Anne realizes that to live her truth as a mixed-race, bilingual woman she must embrace all of her influences and layers. In a world that often wants us to choose a side or fit an ideal, she learns that she can both belong and not belong wherever she is, and that home is ultimately found within.