Bringing together four academics whose expertise is grounded in the use and multiple functions of Indigenous languages, this special session presents innovative approaches to working in and through Indigenous languages, literatures, and philosophies. The presenters will engage with the complexities of research positionalities as they respectfully and ethically navigate the plurilingual sociolinguistic milieus of Abiayala (Latin America).
The first presentation by Zachary Brandner (Texas Tech University), titled “Inláak’ech in the Works of Isaac Carrillo Can: Revisiting ‘cultural logic’ for Maya Literature” centers on Yucatec author Isaac Carrillo Can to examine the author’s work in light of the Maya concept of inláak’ech. Brandner argues that Carrillo Can’s singular interpretation of inláak’ech refers to what anthropologist Edward F. Fischer describes as a “cultural logic,” accounting for the harmonious coexistence of individual and collective agency common to many Maya languages. In his presentation, Brandner approaches these questions of individual and collective agency in Maya language arts by examining inláak’ech, as defined by Carrillo Can, in various poems.
In “Ruchuq’a’ ri ch’ab’äl: Remediations of Guatemalan Maya Orality and Decolonial Linguistic Activism,” Tiffany D. Creegan Miller (Colby College) will shift contexts from the Maya of the Yucatán Peninsula to turn our attention to the Maya of Guatemala. Her work challenges the distinctions between “old” and “new” media and narratives about deprecation of orality in favor of inscribed forms, as she draws from Maya concepts of recorded knowledge (tz’ib’) and orality (tzij, choloj, ch’owen) to look at expressive work across media and languages. Miller maintains that the persistence of orality and the interweaving of media forms combine to invite readers and audiences alike to participate in decolonial research methodologies through Indigenous language preservation.
Jennifer Gómez Menjívar (University of North Texas) broadens the focus of the panel to discuss examples from Maya, Zapotec, Quechua, and Mapuche communities in her presentation: “Media Linguistics and the Multilingual Indigenous Turn.” She examines the plurilingual realities of radio, television, film, and digital media creators to advocate for media linguistics as a methodology, instead of mere appreciation or simple advocacy for saving languages. As Gómez Menjívar argues, this method calls on researchers to do away with the artificial division between elite cultural forms and mass/popular cultural forms, and instead focus on the grassroots production of media developed for the purpose of safeguarding and archiving living Indigenous languages.
Lastly, in “Philosophical Relationality: An Oath of Accountability for Non-Indigenous Scholars,” Osiris Aníbal Gómez (University of Minnesota) presents a theoretical approach for reproducing Indigenous relationality practices in the context of the humanities. Building on Opaskwayak Cree scholar, Shawn Wilson’s, theorization of Indigenous relationality and its duties of ethics and accountability around ceremonial research, Gómez proposes methods that involve translation and bilingualism that can transform the ways in which non-Indigenous scholars also practice accountability in how knowledge is transmitted and translated to their teaching and research. Gómez's philosophical relationality oath aims to promote scholarship where researchers find ways to resist hyper individualistic neoliberal competitive research values that accelerate the decontextualization of knowledge.
Presentations will last 10 minutes each, for a total of approximately 50 minutes (taking into account speaker introductions and transitions between presentations). Though we will not have a respondent, the last presentation by Osiris Aníbal Gómez will connect the case studies presented in the previous presentations and provide a transition to the questions from the audience, which will occupy 25 minutes.