Current Initiatives

International Mother Language Day

This group is focused at the moment on supporting communities and campuses that want to organize International Mother Language Day (IMLD) celebrations. The main goal is to develop a practical “how-to” guide that outlines key steps, resources, event ideas, and best practices. To build this guide, the group plans to crowdsource strategies from people who have already organized IMLD events. Once completed, the guide will be translated into multiple languages and modalities to increase accessibility and reach. The working timeline is roughly one year to ensure organizers have enough time to prepare for their own celebrations. A survey has already been shared online to crowdsource different ways it is celebrated.

Language Rights Task Force

This group responds to ongoing threats to language rights, linguistic access, and freedom of expression in the United States. Its immediate focus is the Presidential Executive Order issued on March 1, 2025, which designates English as the official language of the country. The group monitors the rapidly evolving consequences of this order, including federal directives pushing agencies to eliminate language access protections, the rollback of Title VI–related safeguards, and agency-level actions. Ongoing goals include raising public and scholarly awareness, documenting/crowdsourcing impacts of the EO (news articles, legal documents), coordinating collective responses within the Society for Linguistic Anthropology (open letter), and supporting individuals or communities facing language-related discrimination. 

Language and Gender / LGBTQ+

This group explores how linguistic anthropology can better support research, teaching, and advocacy around gender, sexuality, and LGBTQ+ communities. The group is considering both structural and political pressures—such as policy shifts that make this work more precarious—as well as ways to sustain scholarship and community support within and beyond universities. Potential actions include coordinating statements or collective responses to political changes that threaten academic freedom regarding language and gender matters, or women and the LGBTQ+ population, and creating spaces where scholars can share resources or collaborate on future work. 

Accessibility (Linguistic, Disability, Economic, Epistemic, and More)

This group approaches accessibility from an intersectional perspective, recognizing that access can be shaped not only by disability but also by economic inequality, linguistic diversity, institutional barriers, and knowledge hierarchies. Their work includes identifying strategies to make scholarly ideas available in multiple formats—such as blog posts, visual summaries, alternative writing styles, and multilingual publications—while keeping disability-related accessibility central rather than overshadowed. Members also hope to continue recent efforts to elevate accessibility within SLA and maintain communication with the organization’s accessibility coordinator.

Language Destandardization / Raciolinguistics / Academic Language

This group looks at how standardized language norms reproduce racial and linguistic hierarchies, and how scholars can intervene in assessment, teaching, and institutional practices. Early discussions covered raciolinguistics, the relationship between language ideologies and racial discrimination, and ways to avoid reinforcing standard language expectations in academic contexts. The group is crowdsourcing resources on inclusive writing assessment and linguistic justice. 

Surveillance, AI, and Freedom of Speech

This group is concerned with how surveillance technologies—including AI tools used in universities—impact students, faculty, and communities, especially around privacy and politically sensitive topics. Discussions include how government bodies are shaping what scholars can study, write about, or teach regarding LGBTQ+ issues, gender, sexuality, international conflicts, ethnic studies, and more. The group is considering whether the LSJ Working Group, SLA, or AAA could issue a collective statement opposing harmful policies. Additional concerns include repercussions such as faculty dismissals or student expulsions, and how linguistic practices are weaponized in contexts like “No More Deaths” cases or emergency calls targeting Spanish speakers.

Past Initiatives

Check out past initiatives for the SLA Committee on Language and Social Justice!