Native American Studies position at Southern Oregon University (SOU)

The Southern Oregon University (SOU) Native American Studies program invites applications for a tenure track faculty position in Native American Studies at the Assistant (possibly Associate) Professor level.The person in this position will demonstrate a strong commitment to undergraduate teaching and mentoring, and will contribute to the development of the Native American Studies program (see http://www.sou.edu/natam/index.html). This person should be able to teach the core three-quarter sequence in Native American Studies (NAS 201, 301, and 410) along with other courses to be determined according to the person’s areas of interest and program needs. This person’s specialization is open, but the program is especially interested in furthering course offerings on topics in language, ecology, and ethnobotany in a way that supports the tribal communities around SOU. This person will be a scholar-practitioner who can advance the program’s objectives of furthering Native American Studies across the wider community and of integrating Native American needs and perspectives into teaching, scholarship, and service.Read the full job posting at the link below:https://jobs.sou.edu/postings/5659

ELDP grant round open

SSILA members may be interested in applying for the Endangered Languages Documentation Program (ELDP) annual grant:The grant round closes 15th January 2017, 5pm (GMT) and applicants will be notified of the result by 15th June 2017.The types of grants available are:

  • Small Grants of up to £10,000
  • Small Grants of up to £10,000
  • Individual Postdoctoral Fellowships
  • Major Documentation Projects

Our key objectives are:

  • to support the documentation of as many endangered languages as possible
  • to encourage fieldwork on endangered languages
  • to create a repository of resources for linguistics, social science, and the language communities
  • to make the documentary collections freely available

You can find detailed guidelines about the scope of our programme, the different grant types and eligibility criteria here: http://www.eldp.net/en/our+ grants/grant+types/All applications must be submitted online. You can access the application forms through our website: http://www.eldp.net/en/apply/all+grant+types/

Native American Linguistics & Language Revitalization position at University of Arizona

The Department of Linguistics at the University of Arizona is initiating a search for a tenure-track position in Native American Linguistics and Language Revitalization.  The position requires a PhD in Linguistics or a related discipline, and involves teaching and mentoring at the undergraduate and graduate levels, conducting research, and undertaking service duties in Native American Linguistics and Language Revitalization. The course load is 2-2, including courses in both our Native American Master's in Linguistics program and in the Language Revitalization track of our PhD program.The full job add may be viewed here.We are eager to be sure that ALL potential candidates have a chance to consider our ad! Please forward this announcement as widely as you can, and if you or someone you know may potentially be interested in applying but have questions, please contact me (or have them contact me: hharley@email.arizona.edu). Also feel free to send us suggestions for potential candidates who we could reach out to!Here's a link to our current Graduate Handbook, in case you'd like to check the relevant graduate programs out.

  • Master of Arts in Native American Languages and Linguistics: p. 27-28
  • PhD track in Language Revitalization: p. 10-11
  • Joint PhD in Anthropology and Linguistics: p. 23-25

At the undergraduate level, the Department of Linguistics offers a survey course on Native American Languages, among diverse other courses in linguistics, and also language courses in the Tohono O'odham and Navajo languages.The University of Arizona is also home to the American Indian Languages Development Institute (AILDI), which brings students and educators working in Indigenous language revitalization to campus every summer for an intensive course of study.

Call for Tribal College & University Linguistics Workshop Participants

(Reposted from the LSA website)The LSA joined with its project partners to issue the following call to students and faculty at Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) to apply to participate in a special workshop on language and linguistics at the LSA's upcoming Annual Meeting in Austin, TX. Please share this call [pdf] with anyone who might be interested.Are you studying, teaching, or revitalizing languages at your Tribal College or University? Have you wanted to know more about linguistics, how to work with linguists, or why linguists described your language the way they did?The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is partnering with AIHEC on a grant that LSA received from the National Science Foundation (Grant No. 1643510) to collaborate in building the research capacity of Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) and in broadening participation by American Indians and Alaska Natives in the language sciences. This project seeks to learn from TCUs how linguists can support their language research and revitalization goals, and to foster ongoing collaborations with TCU students/faculty and linguists through identifying potential sources of support for such collaborations.The centerpiece of the project will be a full-day workshop designed to address the interests and needs of TCU faculty and students in their work on language and the scientific study of language (linguistics). Twenty fellowships, which cover travel, lodging, meals, and conference registration to the LSA Annual Meeting and the Workshop (January 5-8, 2017 in Austin, Texas), will be awarded through an application process to TCU students/faculty. Each participant will be paired with an LSA faculty or graduate student mentor throughout the conference.Selection criteria includes: 1) current TCU student or faculty, 2) maximizing TCU representation, 3) match between participant goals and resources of the workshop and the LSA meeting as a whole, and 4) the participant’s ability to travel to Austin, TX in early 2017 for the all-day workshop on January 5th.To apply, complete the form by clicking here, or paste this link into your browser: https://goo.gl/forms/KvxdT5K0fb4zRVLp1. The deadline for submission is November 9, 2016 at 5:00 p.m. EST.If you are not able to attend the workshop or the Annual Meeting, but would like to be notified when video from the workshop is published, please complete this form.To learn more about the Linguistic Society of America and this project, click here. Again, the submission deadline is 5:00 p.m. EST on November 9, 2016.

NSF Documenting Endangered Languages solicitation now available

(From Colleen Fitzgerald, NSF DEL P.D.)The Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) program has a new solicitation NSF 16-617, Documenting Endangered Languages - Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants (DEL-DDRIG). Proposals may be submitted anytime to this solicitation; doctoral students are limited to two DDRIG submissions over the course of their graduate careers.Eligibility for the DEL-DDRIG solicitation 16-617 is limited to doctoral students who are enrolled at Ph.D. granting universities and colleges accredited in, and having a campus located in the US acting on behalf of their faculty members. DEL DDRIG proposals must be submitted with a faculty member (generally the advisor) as the principal investigator (PI) and the doctoral student as the co-principal investigator (Co-PI).DDRIGs recommended by the DEL Program will not exceed $15,000 in allowable direct costs over the duration of the award. Indirect costs are in addition to this maximum direct cost limitation and are subject to the awardee's current Federally negotiated indirect cost rate. Project budgets should be developed at scales appropriate for the work to be conducted and may only include costs directly associated with the conduct of dissertation research. DEL DDRIGs cannot reimburse the costs of a stipend or salary for the doctoral student or advisor.For full information on allowable costs and other restrictions, view the solicitation at:https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2016/ nsf16617/nsf16617.htm

CoLang 2018 to be hosted by the University of Florida

The 2018 Institute on Collaborative Language Research (CoLang) will be held at the University of Florida from June 18 - July 20, 2018. This institute may be of interest to SSILA members working on documentation and revitalization projects, and includes dozens of useful workshops on all aspects of language documentation and revitalization. Its focus is to bring research linguists and community language activists together to learn best practices in language documentation and revitalization. This is an especially good opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in entering this area of linguistics, so consider sharing this with your department as well!More details can be found at the following link:http://www.linguisticsociety.org/news/2016/10/12/colang-2018-be-hosted-university-florida

Call for applications for National Breath of Life Archival Institute now open

The application window for the National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages is now open.

The Mission of the National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages is to help endangered language communities find and utilize their linguistic archival sources from archives located in the D.C. area.

More information about how to apply can be found here.

Registration for Annual Meeting

Registration for the SSILA 2017 meeting is now open! Registration should be completed through the LSA website by going to the LSA meeting page and clicking the Register for Meeting button at the top of the page.For attendees who are not LSA members but would like to register at member rates, the following coupon codes can be used during checkout:[emember_protected]

  • 2017AMSSREG (regular members)
  • 2017AMSSSTUDENT (student members)

[/emember_protected]These codes will allow you to register as a nonmember, while receiving member rates.If you are already an LSA member, you should login to the LSA website and register as an LSA member - do not use the above coupon codes if you are already an LSA member.The LSA's annual meeting page also has links to hotel reservations, which are available through December 14.Part of the Annual Meeting schedule - the posters and 20-minute papers - is viewable by clicking the Schedule tab on the Annual Meeting page. The rest - the organized sessions, plenaries, one-off events, etc. - will be available by early October.

SSILA 2017 Meeting Information

2017 Annual Meeting

Austin, TX

January 5-8, 2017

The deadline for abstract submissions has passed. Notifications of acceptance were sent on or about Sept. 13, 2016.

The annual winter meeting of SSILA will be held jointly with the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) in Austin, TX at the JW Marriott, January 5-8, 2017. Information about the hotel and location can be found at the LSA website. Participants will be able to register for the meeting and reserve hotel rooms online at the LSA site between 09/01/2016 and 12/18/2016.For the most up-to-date details about meeting registration, hotel reservations, etc. please check the LSA website.

Meeting Registration

Registration for SSILA can be done through the LSA website at this link. Addtional information about registration is also available at the LSA website. Everyone attending the meeting is expected to register, and registrants should wear their meeting badges at all times when at LSA Annual Meeting functions.

Preregistration

Preregistration for the 2017 Annual Meeting will be available from September 1 through December 18, 2016.Preregistration rates are as follows:

  • Regular/Emeritus/Life Members: $240
  • Student Members: $78
  • Under/Unemployed Members: $90
  • Nonmember - Regular: $350
  • Nonmember - Student: $150

Onsite Registration

Any attendees who have not preregistered for the Meeting by the December 18 deadline will need to register onsite during the hours listed immediately above. Onsite registration fees are:

  • Regular/Emeritus/Life Members: $310
  • Student Members: $115
  • Under/Unemployed Members: $105
  • Nonmember - Regular: $420
  • Nonmember - Student: $175
  • Special 1-day Rate: $85

Preregistrants may claim their conference tote bags, badges, and handbooks at the registration desk beginning at 12:00 p.m. on January 5. Registration will be open from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on January 5, from 8:00 AM. to 7:00 p.m. on January 6 and 7, and from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on January 8.

Hotel Reservations

The JW Marriott Austin has reserved a block of rooms for those attending the 2017 Annual Meeting. The JW Marriott is one of Austin's newest and largest hotels, and is convenient both to public transportation, major landmarks, and local dining and entertainment options. Read more about why attendees should book with the LSA Room Block for the 2017 Annual Meeting.Reservations may be made online or by telephone ((844) 473-3959; reference the Linguistic Society of America meeting) from September 1 through December 14, 2016.  The special LSA room rates for the 2017 Annual Meeting are:Single/Double: $119/nightTriple: $129/nightQuad: $139/night

CFP: Indigenous Names & Toponyms

Call for Papers

Special journal issue of NAMES devoted to

Indigenous Names & Toponyms

The American Name Society (ANS) is inviting abstracts for scientific papers providing an analysis and discussion of indigenous names and toponyms found in former European colonies in the Americas, Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Antipodes. Any area of the use of indigenous names may be the subject of analysis. Suggested issues for discussion include, but are by no means limited to the following: the transcription (spelling) of indigenous names and/or determining their meanings, indigenous naming practices, indigenous names as identity markers, the reinstallation of indigenous toponyms, the reclamation of indigenous languageand culture through their names, and the appropriation of indigenous names, etc.

Proposal Submission Process

  1. Proposals should include a précis of no more than 500 words and a 50-word biographical sketch of the author including the author’s name, affiliation, onomastic interests, and email.
  2. All submissions must follow the Journal’s official stylistic and grammatical regulations, available at http://www.maneyonline.com/ifa/nam.
  3. Proposals should be sent via email attachment in a .doc or .docx format to Dr. I. M. Nick at mavi.yaz@web.de, with “Indigenous Names and Toponyms” in the subject line.
  4. Proposals must be received by 1 February, 2017.
  5. All submissions will be subjected to a blind peer review process.
  6. Notification of acceptance will be announced on or about 31 March, 2017.
  7. Final submissions due for publication 31 July, 2017.
  8. For questions, please contact either Dr. I. M. Nick at mavi.yaz@web.de, or Dr.Jan Tent at jan.tent@anu.edu.au.

Call for papers: From Scroll to Scrolling: Shifting cultures of language and identity

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs5th Annual International and Interdisciplinary Conference Call for Papers From Scroll to Scrolling: Shifting cultures of language and identity March 9-11, 2017Middlebury College, Vermont, USALanguage and identity are inseparable. Changes in writing technology, on the one hand, and inpower dynamics, on the other, shape communities and individual identities. This conferenceexamines two intertwined themes: One, the impact of the production and circulation of texts,over time and place, on practices of writing, reading, and the transmission of knowledge. Two,the way in which power imbalances affect language use, community, and identity. As writingtechnologies emerge, decisions are made regarding what knowledge gets preserved and(re)produced or forgotten and lost. Changes in technologies of writing and access to theircontrol have profound effects on cultural survival and social change.The conference will address questions such as

  • How are individual and cultural identities linked to the materiality of a given language

and its writing system (e.g., the painterly quality of Chinese ideographs; Helveticatypeface)? Are there universal elements of written technology that transcendparticulars? Is digital technology—the ability to type any language on a singlekeyboard—flattening or erasing the materiality of individual languages?

  • How have the physical aspects of the production and circulation of texts (e.g. carvings,

scroll, codex, manuscript, screen) shaped knowledge production over time? How havechanges in ways of writing and reading lent new meanings to ‘old’ texts, and newreading experiences?

  • How does the study of ancient technologies of writing and reading—epigraphy,

scholarship of Chinese bone script—inform contemporary understandings of culturalcommunity? Does it suggest essential continuities? Or does it suggest a rupture withthe past in which technology has fundamentally changed the nature of communication?

  • How have national literatures and cultures negotiated the distance between their oral

and written languages through time? How have uses of technologies of writing createdor reflected this distance?

  • How have religious communities negotiated changes in technologies of writing and what

role have sacred languages played in the construction of shared religious identitiesacross linguistically diverse communities?Presenters may want to address the following themes:

  • Language and identity
  • Materiality of language
  • Sacred language
  • Orality, literacy, and new media
  • Poetics, textuality, politics
  • Censorship and language policies: threatened and disappearing languages
  • Technologies of writing—multiplicity, diversity and change
  • Technology, hybridity, authorship

We invite papers that address these issues from a range of disciplinary perspectives as theypertain to different historical periods and geographical locations.Those interested in presenting at the conference should send an abstract (no more than 250words) and their curriculum vitae by October 1, 2016, to the organizers below. The selectionprocess is competitive.Funds are available to support travel and lodging of all participants.Organizers:Tamar Mayer, Professor of Geography and Director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs,mayer@middlebury.eduSteve Snyder, Professor of Japanese Studies and Dean of Language Schools,ssnyder@middlebury.eduJuana Gamero de Coca, Associate Professor of Spanish, jgamero@middlebury.eduMarybeth Nevins, Associate Professor of Anthropology, mnevins@middlebury.edu

Finding an Archive for your (Endangered) Language Research Data

This article was originally posted by Susan Smythe Kung (Manager, Archive of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (AILLA)) on LSA's Committee on Endangered Languages and their Preservation (CELP) blog in July 2015. Dr. Kung recently revised the post for republication here.The submission deadline for the NSF/NEH Documenting Endangered Languages grant is just around the corner (September 26, 2016). If this is your first time applying for a DEL grant, please be aware that all varieties of the DEL grant (Senior Research Grants, Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants, and Fellowships) require you to submit a support letter from an archive that has agreed to accept your data for ingestion. So how do you find the archive that will be the future home of your language research data? And once you've identified an archive that is a good fit, what do you do next? The following information and tips will be helpful to researchers who plan to apply for any of the DEL grants, as well as to anyone who plans to submit research data to a(n) (endangered) language archive, regardless of his/her funding source.

DELAMAN Archives

The Digital Endangered Languages and Musics Archives Network (DELAMAN, www.delaman.org) is an international network of archives that preserve materials in or about endangered and/or indigenous languages from all around the world. Links to the individual archives can be found under the Members tab (http://www.delaman.org/members/) on the website. Some of the archives specialize in a specific region of the world, and each archive has its own collection policies and fees. Some archives have a self-deposit feature that allows depositors to organize and upload their own born-digital data via a web interface, while other archives do all data ingestion in house. Some archives can digitize analog data while others cannot. The best way to determine if one of the DELAMAN archives is a good fit for your data is to start at the DELAMAN website, then follow the links to the individual archives to read their collection policies and intake procedures.The following DELAMAN member archives provided some specific information for this blog post:

  • Alaska Native Language Archive (ANLA) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks houses materials relating to Alaska's 20 Native languages, including varieties spoken outside Alaska, and in some cases, languages related to those spoken in Alaska. Information for depositors can be found here.
  • American Philosophical Society (APS) accepts most forms of digital and analog linguistic research data for languages of North and Central America. The APS does not charge fees for depositing data, though depositors needing their data to be fully catalogued by a given date in order to fulfill funding (or other) requirements should consult with the APS ahead of time to ensure this is feasible in relation to the nature and quantity of data. Inquiries on depositing, archiving procedures, and access policies can be directed to the archivist for the APS Center for Native American and Indigenous Research, Brian Carpenter (bcarpenter@amphilsoc.org).
  • Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA) at the University of Texas at Austin accepts any materials relevant to any indigenous language of Latin America and the Caribbean. AILLA is undergoing a major repository and procedural upgrade at the time of writing, so it is not currently accepting deposits until March 2017 at the latest. Nevertheless, AILLA will continue to provide letters of support for researchers during this temporary suspension of depositor services. Information about how to make a deposit and associated fees can be found at http://ailla.utexas.org/site/dep_info.html. Please be aware that this information will be updated (and dramatically changed) during the 2016-17 academic year as part of the upgrade. For a support letter, please contact the archive at ailla@ailla.utexas.org.
  • California Language Archive (CLA) at the University of California Berkeley does not require a Data Management Plan or charge fees, though when depositors have external grants, CLA staff are happy to discuss the latter. Instructions for depositors are found at http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/archive/for-depositors.php.
  • Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London primarily accepts data that were collected by researchers with support from the Endangered Language Documentation Programme (ELDP); they charge a fee for all other depositors. Information about depositing materials at ELAR can be found here; a PDF can be downloaded here. ELAR recommends that new depositors use the ELDP profile for the CMDI Maker (http://cmdi-maker.uni-koeln.de/), an offline web app developed by the University of Cologne for adding metadata to linguistic data, to prepare files for deposit. They have two video tutorials on how to use their CMDI maker that can be viewed here and here. More experienced depositors might want to use the Arbil tool (https://tla.mpi.nl/tools/tla-tools/arbil/), a more advanced app developed by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics for organizing files and metadata for deposit in a digital archive.
  • Kaipuleohone Language Archive at the University of Hawai'i Manoa accepts materials from University of Hawai’i affiliates, and from anyone else with materials on languages from the Pacific or Asia. They accept born-digital items and can digitize analog materials like reel-to-reel and cassette recordings, images, and fieldnotes. Please read their Deposit Agreement Form and their Embargo Policy. To inquire about depositing with Kaipuleohone, including getting a Letter of Support for your NSF DEL proposal, please contact them at kaipu@hawaii.edu.
  • Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures: PARADISEC's digitization services and fees are explained here. General instructions for depositors can be found at http://www.paradisec.org.au/deposit.html.
  • The Language Archive (TLA) at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics currently mainly serves as an archive for its own researchers and associated projects such as DOBES. The archive requires metadata to be provided in CMDI format (certain profiles) and expects depositors to use their LAMUS web-based tool for depositing materials. Acceptance of external deposits will be decided upon on a case by case basis, for inquiries contact them at tla@mpi.nl.

Alternatives to DELAMAN Archives

Though the DELAMAN member archives are unique and varied, some researchers have not been able to find one that is a good fit for their research projects. For example, some archives prioritize data that results from research that their sister organizations fund. Other archives accept data only from particular regions of the world. Occasionally archives must temporarily suspend their depositor services in order to catch up on their ingestion backlog or upgrade their repositories and web interfaces. So what do you do when you cannot find a DELAMAN archive that can house your research data?The first place to look is in your research community, which might already have its own community archive or a relationship with an existing archive or library. These organizations might be willing to add data that is collected as part of your project to their existing collections. If there is a community or affiliated archive, you should consider putting your data here even if you plan to use one of the DELAMAN archives as well.The next place to look is at your home institution. Almost all US institutions have an Institutional (Data) Repository (IR) for their faculty, students, and researchers. Many universities now require their faculty (and sometimes their graduate students) to put their research results in their local IRs. If your institution does not have its own IR, it might be a member of a larger IR to which you can submit your data. Make inquiries at your institution's main library.Alternatively, you could consider placing your data in a large, public data repository such as the Dataverse Project at http://dataverse.org/. The Tromsø Repository of Language and Linguistics is a Dataverse instance dedicated specifically to linguistic datasets and statistical code (but not audio or video of naturally occurring speech). Please see the website for more information.A useful tool to search for data repositories throughout the world can be found at the Registry of Research Data Repositories (www.re3data.org).

Contacting an Archive

Once you've identified an archive that seems to be an appropriate repository for your research data, you need to contact the archive (i) to make sure that they will be able to accept your data for deposit; (ii) to find out what requirements they have and what, if any, fees they charge; and (iii) to request a support letter to be included in your grant application package. The following points are things to keep in mind when contacting the archive:

First contact:

  • Contact the archive to which you plan to submit your data well in advance of the grant submission deadline (ideally 2-3 months in advance). If you contact them just a few days before your proposal is due to your Office of Sponsored Projects, they might not have time to review your DMP or write a support letter for you.
  • Remember that the people who work at the archive are very busy with the ongoing work of that archive and that institution. Since they have work-related deadlines of their own, they cannot drop everything to rush your support letter because you waited too late to request it. Also remember that you are not the only person that has contacted that archive. Some archives write 10-20 support letters for DEL grants every application round.
  • The archive's representative (which might be the manager, the director, an archivist, or some other staff member) will need to know some basic information about your project before s/he can write the support letter for you (see below).

Basic information about your proposed project to give to the archive:

  • The title of your proposed project (i.e., the exact title of your grant application).
  • The research language(s) and ISO 639 code(s).
  • The name of the PI and names of any Co-PIs.
  • A summary of the type of data you plan to submit to the archive (e.g., audio, video, translations, transcriptions, annotations, text grids, etc.) and their format (.wav, .mpg, .mov, .eaf, .trs, etc.). Note in particular if you plan to submit any analog data to the archive. If so, the archive might charge a fee to digitize your analog data.
  • A timeline indicating when you plan to send your data to the archive (e.g., once a year, after each field trip, at the conclusion of the project). Note that different archives have different preferences for how and when you submit your data. For example, AILLA encourages depositors to submit small batches of data at frequent intervals, but ELAR asks that depositors submit all of their data at once at the conclusion of the project.
  • A copy of your Data Management Plan. The archive representative might want to read your DMP and provide you with any feedback that is relevant to his/her archive (e.g., you might have included a file format type that the archive is not equipped to handle).

Post-award notification:

  • Follow up with the Archive and let them know if you got the award or not. The archive needs to know if and when to expect your data.
  • If you got the award, send the archive a schedule of when they should expect your materials, a description of what you plan to send, and an estimate of how many files and GB of data you anticipate sending. This way the archive can put your data into its queue, arrange server/shelf space, etc. Note that this tentative schedule might be the same one that was in your DMP, or you might have had to revise it for your grant.

The most important things to keep in mind as you choose an archive to house your research data are these: start your search early and communicate with your chosen archive regularly.