LAMP is a group that is focused on getting undergraduates involved in sociolinguistic research in the greater Portland area, helping to formulate a more nuanced understanding of which languages and varieties are used, where, and by whom.
LAMP is a collaboration among faculty, students, and staff with two synergistic aims:
- The first is to uncover details, visual and aural, of language use in the greater Portland metro area. Long-term goals for this include a publicly accessible web archive of data with associated maps and an interactive museum-style exhibit.
- The second aim is to build a sustainable model for undergraduate research and mentorship. Undergraduates in Applied Linguistics have been conducting exploratory projects as part of their courses sometimes building on previous student work. Students are also collaborating with faculty on ongoing research projects.
To get involved with LAMP, contact faculty members Jenny Mittelstaedt, John Hellermann, Janet Cowal, or Steve Thorne at lampPDX@pdx.edu.
LAMP Projects
Where’s the Vaccine for Racism? Expressions of Hope in COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter Semiotic Ephemera
In a paper presented for the 2021 International Pragmatics Associate meeting, we discussed the public displays of hope that emerged from two events 1) the COVID-19 pandemic and 2) the George Floyd murder in Minneapolis, USA. Both events catalyzed public displays of expressions of hope in a range of forms that included the production of handmade graphical messages and signage. Building on frameworks and research approaches associated with linguistic landscapes (Landry & Bourhis, 1997; Cenoz & Gorter, 2006, Smakman & Henrich, 2018), discourse in place (Scollon & Scollon, 2003), and dialectical utopianism (Harvey, 2000), our project focused on locally placed linguistic expressions within the city of Portland, Oregon that emerged in response to these globally significant events. For a full version of the conference paper, please contact one of the LAMP members.
Linguistic Diversity and Discrimination Awareness Project: Raising Awareness and Addressing Systemic Language Bias at Portland State University
This project (funded by a Portland State Reimagine grant) aims to raise awareness of language bias within the PSU community and begin to develop institutional capacity to address language bias and discrimination campus-wide. The multi-component project (1) documents and raises awareness of the diversity of languages, varieties of English, and accents on campus, (2) records the experiences that students, faculty, and staff have with language use and language bias, and (3) develops models of educational materials can be used for faculty/staff development, in student orientations or inquiry classes, and by the Office of Global Diversity and Inclusion (OGDI) as part of their continuing education. The documentation is being done by survey and through public- facing awareness events (‘linguistics road show’ booths, panel discussions) and will provide information for building an empirically informed description of the community’s linguistic diversity. This description of the diversity of the PSU speech community will (1) provide a foundation for recommendations for how linguistic diversity can be supported and linguistic bias reduced and (2) inform educational and/or policy interventions for addressing the connections between language, varieties of language (registers, dialects, accents), race, and ethnicity in order to prevent discrimination based on language or language variety.