"Linguistic Perception and Production in Heritage Language"
Gláucia Silva
Professor of Portuguese, UMass Dartmouth

Heritage language (HL) speakers tend to assess their linguistic competence in binary terms, such as "good" and "bad," and to consider that they speak "slang" or a "broken" language (Byram et al., 2021). However, research on HL production does not confirm these perceptions: Rinke et al. (2024) show that structures that prove most challenging for HL bilinguals are also problematic for monolingual speakers. Furthermore, Torregrossa et al. (2023) indicate that age and formal instruction in the HL may lead to better performance in those challenging structures. Drawing on examples from Portuguese grammar, this talk discusses research on linguistic production in HL, including gender and verb tenses, as well as the perception of learners in relation to instruction and to their own abilities in the HL.

Bio: Gláucia Silva is a Professor in the Department of Portuguese at UMass Dartmouth. She specializes in heritage and foreign language learning, with a focus on Portuguese. Professor Silva has co-authored four Portuguese language textbooks and is the author of Word Order in Brazilian Portuguese (De Gruyter, 2001/2013). She has also published several scholarly articles and book chapters, both in English and in Portuguese. Her graduate advisees have investigated different aspects related to Portuguese language and linguistics, such as the roles of attitude and motivation in learning Portuguese, service encounters in Portuguese in Massachusetts, gay articulations of desire in Rio de Janeiro, the impact of anxiety on learning Portuguese, using songs in the foreign language classroom, task-based language teaching, and mother-child interactions in a bilingual family, among others.

This event will be held in person in G25 Stimson and will also be streamed live over Zoom (registration required). Join us at the LRC or on Zoom.

The event is free and open to the public.

Co-sponsored by the Language Resource Center, the Department of Romance Studies, and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program through its Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

"Doing It (Gender) Justice: Reimagining Language Education Through Trans Knowledges"
Kris Aric Knisely
Associate Professor of French and Intercultural Competence, University of Arizona

As people who teach, learn, and research language, the time for us to work toward forms of gender justice that honor and revel in the knowledges and linguistic practices of trans people has long since been here and it grows ever-more overdue in the ongoing wake of globalized and localized forms of anti-trans, anti-education, and other oppressive actions (Knisely, 2023; Knisely & Russell, 2024). If we are to move toward gender justice in language education, we need not only increasingly inclusionary pedagogies, materials, research, and languaging, but also to think beyond the confines of inclusionary discourses alone. When we unscript the cisheteronormativities and cislingualism that are engrained in much of our field, we open ourselves up to new ways of thinking about language-as-social-verb, learning as participation in languaging communities, and education as a site for gender justice, among other key concepts (e.g., trans translanguaging, undoing competence). In this session, we will engage with some of the burgeoning research into trans ways of doing and teaching language in order to reimagine what we do as language scholar-educators, deepen our understanding of what it means to work toward gender justice in our field, and, ultimately to “stand in the tensions of our own humanity, our own languaging and gendering, our own doing and undoing, and look through it for what might be our greater potentiality” (Knisely & Russell, 2024, p. 254). Together, we will ask: What will we do to work toward a world where language enriches the livability of all of our lives?

Bio: Dr. Kris Aric Knisely (Ph.D., French and Educational Studies, Emory University) is Associate Professor of French and Intercultural Competence as well as affiliated faculty in both SLAT and TSRC at the University of Arizona. Knisely’s research focuses on the interplay between the social, relational practices of doing language and doing gender, particularly as they relate to language education and to trans linguacultures. Dr. Knisely’s work has appeared in a variety of venues including Contemporary French Civilization, CFC Intersections, Critical Multilingualism Studies, Foreign Language Annals, The French Review, Gender and Language, and The Modern Language Journal, among others. Knisely is also co-editor (with Eric Russel, UC-Davis) of Redoing linguistic worlds: Unmaking gender binaries, remaking gender pluralities (Multilingual Matters).

This event will be held in person in G25 Stimson and will also be streamed live over Zoom (registration required). Join us at the LRC or on Zoom.

The event is free and open to the public.

African Integration Within the Imperatives of Neo-Liberal Globalism, Multipolarity and the African Union Agenda 2063: Can it be Feasible?

AGENDA 2063 is Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future. It is the continent’s strategic framework that aims to deliver on its goal for inclusive and sustainable development and is a concrete manifestation of the pan-African drive for unity, self-determination, freedom, progress and collective prosperity pursued under Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance.

https://au.int/en/agenda2063/overview

Public Registration

IAD Spring 2025 Seminar Series:

In the 1960s and 1970s, in response to holdouts of colonial power in southern and Portuguese Africa, self-described African national liberation movements took form. These organizations engaged in military and diplomatic efforts to achieve independence, usually with the goal of seizing state power. These groups were surprisingly successful at mobilizing western support, especially from civil society organizations ranging from moderate to militant left groups. Supporters organized American speaking tours for liberation movement representatives; for example, in 1973, Cape Verdean guerrilla leader Amilcar Cabral spoke at Syracuse University. Supporters also channeled aid money to development projects run by the liberation movements. This talk will explore the methods of connection with African liberation movements, looking at how they worked together to attract western support, and what that support entailed. This paper will argue that this period constituted a unique moment of political, intellectual, and strategic connection between a small set of African political formations and an equally small set of western formations. It therefore sheds new light on the history of aid and development politics.

Public Registration

This presentation summarizes a new book analyzing the history of food security and agricultural development initiatives in post-colonial Africa and outlining a vision for future prosperity. The basic argument has three parts. First, development organizations and governments will only begin to seriously address food insecurity in Africa when they more fully question the assumption that production agriculture is the solution, an idea that is central to crop science or agronomy. Second, agricultural development must be seen as more than the first step in an industrial development process, but as a sustainable livelihood that has value in and of itself. Third, an agroecological approach, combined with good governance, will allow people to have greater control over their food systems, produce healthy food more sustainably, and enhance access to food by the poorest of the poor. Following a broad conceptual introduction emphasizing political agronomy and political ecology, the author reviews past food security and agricultural development experiences in four countries where he has undertaken research: Mali, Burkina Faso, South Africa and Botswana. He then examines successful efforts in each of the aforementioned countries and outlines future directions that emphasize agroecology, the application of ecological principles to agricultural systems. He concludes with some ideas about institutions at the national, regional and international levels. To build more resilient food systems and a different kind of development, new institutions will need to emerge that support agroecology and vibrant rurality.

Public Registration

In this presentation, I discuss how street traders’ associations in Harare (Zimbabwe) mobilize and organize to defend the interests of traders operating in a politically volatile and contested urban environment. I demonstrate how external political dynamics, and institutional constraints shape the strategies and outcomes of these associations. Drawing on qualitative research, including interviews with municipal officials, civil society leaders and focus groups with street traders, the findings reveal that while some associations engage in episodic activism, responding to immediate crises like harassment or eviction, their efforts often lack sustained impact. This is due to challenges in maintaining legitimacy, fostering long-term member engagement, and navigating a politically polarized context. I argue that despite their actions leading to incremental gains, they fail to catalyze structural changes in urban policy and planning. The fragmentation and political polarization within the associations weaken their bargaining power to influence policy agendas or propose alternative policies for negotiation with urban authorities.

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Becoming 'Unlawful': Homeownership, housing bureaucracy, and the production of precarity in Eastridge, Cape Town, South Africa

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Join us for a talk with Cornell alums Sutee Anantsuksomsri, PhD and Nij Tontisirin, PhD where they discuss the role of street food in Bangkok's identity and development.

This talk will take place in Sibley Hall 208 on Monday, Decmeber 9 from 12:00pm to 2:30pm. The talk will be followed by lunch and a Q&A.

About the Talk

Street food has long been a defining element of Bangkok’s urban landscape, playing an essential role in both the city’s culinary identity and its socio-economic development. This study explores how food streets act as catalysts for urban development through an analysis of three significant streets in Bangkok: Yaowarat Road, Pracharajbumpen Road, and Bantadthong Road. Each street reflects unique narratives of cultural heritage, globalization, and urban transformation. Yaowarat Road, known as Chinatown, has been a center of Chinese heritage for over a century. The area’s vibrant food scene is deeply rooted in the traditions of local families who have lived and worked there for generations. This cultural legacy has set Yaowarat’s status as a landmark of historical and culinary significance in Bangkok, drawing both locals and tourists alike. In contrast, Pracharajbumpen Road showcases the effects of recent migration and international investment. The emergence of numerous Chinese restaurants, mainly operated by investors from Mainland China, signifies a shift in the area's character. This influx of new flavors and economic opportunities has transformed the urban dynamics, bringing fresh vibrancy to the street. Bantadthong Road* serves as an example of the intersection between local popularity and global tourism. Once a quieter area, it has now become a bustling food hub, attracting attention from both Thai locals and Chinese tourists. The growth of Chinese-owned establishments underscores the increasing impact of international investment on Bangkok’s food culture and urban environment. By examining these three streets, this study illustrates how food streets function as reflections of broader urban processes. They showcase cultural exchange, economic shifts, and the complexities of globalization, emphasizing the transformative role of food streets in shaping Bangkok’s urban identity and future development.

* This research on Bantadthong Road is part of a collaborative project between the presenters and respondent, supported by a Chulalongkorn University-Cornell University Global Hubs Seed Grant. The project focuses on using urban modeling tools to analyze and guide the neighborhood’s rapid transformation, providing insights into the dynamics of urban change and development in Bangkok.

About the Speakers

Sutee Anantsuksomsri, PhD

Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University

Associate Professor of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University

President of Thailand Section of Regional Science International

The Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the Regional Science Association International

Sutee Anantsuksomsri is an associate professor in the Department of Urban Regional Planning at Chulalongkorn University, where he also serves as the deputy dean of the Faculty of Architecture. He is also the head of the Center of Excellence in Regional, Urban, & Built Environmental Analytics at Chulalongkorn University. He specializes in urban economics, regional and urban development, complex systems, resilient cities, and geoinformatics. Anantsuksomsri has received grants from organizations such as Thailand Science Research and Innovation, the Sumitomo Foundation, ADPC, SERVIR, NASA, and USAID to support his research. He has served as the editor-in-chief of Nakhara: Journal of Environmental Design and Planning (indexed in Scopus Q1) and is a member of the editorial boards of several academic journals. He has also served as an expert on the National Smart City Committee and has worked as a consultant for national and international organizations such as the Eastern Economic Corridor Office of Thailand and the Asian Development Bank.

Anantsuksomsri has previously held teaching positions at Cornell University and Waseda University. He holds a PhD and Master of Arts in regional science from Cornell University, a Master of Science in construction management from Northeastern University, and a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Chulalongkorn University. He is the president of the Thailand Section of Regional Science International and a council member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the Regional Science Association International.

Nij Tontisirin, PhD

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Thammasat University, Thailand

Chair, Program in Urban Environmental Planning and Development, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Thammasat University, Thailand

Nij Tontisirin is an associate professor of urban planning and the chair of the Program in Urban Environmental Planning and Development at Thammasat University Faculty of Architecture and Planning. Her academic expertise includes regional science, urban and regional economics, infrastructure development, land use changes, and climate risk assessment, particularly in Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor. Her work bridges academia and practice, with significant contributions to policy development and urban planning.

She holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Regional Science from Cornell University, a Master in Urban Planning from Harvard University, and a Bachelor in Architecture (First Class Honor) from Chulalongkorn University.

Talk by Zehra Hashmi (History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania)

This talk examines how and why Pakistan’s national biometric-based identification regime came to use an individual’s blood relations to construct and track uniquely identified individuals. Through the concept of datafied kinship, it proposes that the uses of kin networks in Pakistan’s identity database, as information, can reconfigure our understanding of contemporary identification practices at large: individual identity is generated and tracked through relatedness, not unique bodily characteristics, or biometrics alone. To demonstrate this, it first examines how the database design works to construct identity through kin, and specifically how it excludes individuals on the basis of their kin through technological categories such as that of the “family intruder.” Second, it shows how this mode of individual identification differs and departs from the longstanding classificatory schemas that were so foundational to taxonomizing identity along the lines of caste, tribe, and religion in South Asia. It traces this diverging logic—between classification and individuation—to the emergence of individuating technologies in 1970s Pakistan, in the aftermath of the civil war between East Pakistan and West Pakistan, and during the escalating Cold War in the region. In so doing, it illustrates how the political stakes of Pakistan’s identification regime lie not only in its new possibilities for surveillance, a function of its individuating and tracking technology, or its classificatory refusal, but also in their interconnections.

Zehra Hashmi is an assistant professor in the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania. She is an anthropologist and historian who works on identification technologies in South Asia. Her research explores the everyday workings of securitization and surveillance in Pakistan through the intersection of identification, migration, kinship, and postcolonial and colonial governance. She received her PhD from the Interdepartmental Program in Anthropology and History at the University of Michigan.

Talk by Ghazal Asif (Anthropology, Lahore University of Management Science)

For the past decade, the press in Pakistan has remained rife with stories of the kidnapping, forcible conversion to Islam, and marriages of young Hindu women at the hands of Muslim men. Women’s rights and minority advocacy groups have demanded a state-led response, but two attempts at legislation have already failed. In courts, legal redress requires a clear, visible difference between forcible abduction and what is termed “free will” elopement. However, these matters are complicated further when the very nature of Hindu women’s desires appears indeterminate. Accusations that young Hindu women have been seduced (warghalana) into conversion by Muslim men compete with claims that such women leave their natal homes upon becoming irrepressibly attracted to Islam and the Prophet. Drawing on an archive of conversions, elopements, and love affairs that I have been collecting since 2014, in this talk I problematize reductive binaries that focus only on the presence or absence of “free will”, to ask how hierarchies of il/licit desire feed into the public question of just who can claim control of young Hindu women’s bodies in Pakistan. I argue that the seeming unknowability of women’s desires underscores the entangled sexual and religious stakes at the heart of these events.

Ghazal Asif Farrukhi is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at LUMS, Lahore. In 2024-25, she is a fellow at the Women’s Studies in Religion Program at Harvard Divinity School. Ghazal is currently completing a book manuscript provisionally titled Hindu Intimacies Amidst Pakistan’s Muslim State, which focuses on how Hindu women navigate ritual, devotional, and social boundaries while constituting the interface for the state-led reform of religiously minoritized communities. She also writes on the politics of caste emancipation in Pakistan. Her research has been published in American Ethnologist, Inter-Asian Cultural Studies, and South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies.