Please join us on November 24, 2026, 3:30-5:00 PM (Pacific Time) for the inaugural Shannon Ward Memorial Lecture. The guest speaker is Dr. Gerald Roche (he/him), Lecturer in Linguistics, Department of Languages & Cultures, at La Trobe University, Australia. He researches a range of topics related to the intersections of language and power, including language endangerment and revitalization, linguistic justice, and language rights. His work has an applied focus which he pursues through his role as research director for the Linguistic Justice Foundation. His keynote address, titled What I Learned About Language, Agency, and Change from Shannon Ward, will launch this scholarly series, bringing together attendees for an occasion of reflection, learning, and intellectual engagement.
This event is in hybrid format. For more information or to register to attend virtually, click here. Please share widely; all guests are welcome.
Talk Abstract:
Shannon Ward was my friend and also an academic peer. We both did research on similar topics and in field-sites that are close to each other, but our work also diverged in important ways. In this lecture I want to reflect on how the differences between Shannon’s approach and mine have given me reason to reexamine some of the underlying assumptions of my previous work. In particular, I want to talk about what I have learned from Shannon’s work about the role of children in processes of social and linguistic change, and how they actively shape these processes in complex and subtle ways. Although Shannon and I took starkly different approaches to this issue in the past, some work I have undertaken recently has given me a new appreciation of Shannon’s nuanced insights into this topic. In sharing my reflections on this topic with you, I am hoping to continue conversations that I started with Shannon years ago, as a demonstration of one of the ways her ideas live on and continue to work in the world despite her absence.
About Shannon Ward
Dr. Shannon Ward was an Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies at UBC Okanagan. A linguistic anthropologist who earned her PhD from New York University, she studied how children learn, use, and navigate the languages spoken in their families and communities. Much of her research was based in Amdo on the Tibetan Plateau, where she worked with Tibetan children and families, and she also studied Tibetan communities in Canada and elsewhere. Her work showed how children’s language practices are shaped by schooling, migration, state policy, and changing social worlds. She was a cherished member of the CCGS community, a warm and generous colleague, and an inspiring teacher and mentor. She is deeply missed.
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Posted on behalf of Christine Schreyer, PhD (she/her/hers)
Professor of Anthropology
Community, Culture and Global Studies
University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus