With pleasure the Department for Inclusion and Access to Learning, is hosting Professor Andy Curtis from Anaheim University. Professor Curtis will be speaking about Peace Linguistics Immigration, and Weaponizing Words.
Dr Andy Curtis served as the 50th President of the TESOL International Association, and in 2016, received one of the Association’s 50-at-50 Awards, when he was voted one of the Fifty Most Influential Figures in the Field, over the last 50 years.
Dr Curtis has published more than 100 articles, book chapters and books, and has presented to around 25,000 teachers in 50 countries, in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as North, South and Central America. He is based in Ontario, Canada, from where he works as an independent consultant for language education organizations worldwide.
Dr Curtis has published more than 100 articles, book chapters and books, and has presented to around 25,000 teachers in 50 countries, in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as North, South and Central America. He is based in Ontario, Canada, from where he works as an independent consultant for language education organizations worldwide.
Professor Andy Curtis will be presenting on Tuesday 8 May at 16:00 in room VC 102, IT ¸£ÀûÔÚÏßÃâ·Ñ Building, University of Malta.
Abstract
In his brief history of ‘Weaponized Language’, Justin Strawhand (2012), the writer, director, and producer of the multi-award winning documentary War Against the Weak, wrote that: 'Modern linguistics has done much to deny the notion that words possesses any intrinsic meaning, yet the question remains: what of words especially designed to kill, to maim, to segregate, and to destroy?' The interest in analyzing this destructive use of language is on-going. For example, in January of this year, in the New York Times, Linda Qiu wrote an article titled '"Chain Migration" Has Become a Weaponized Phrase', and later that month, in the Los Angeles New York Times, Leo Chavez’s article was published, under the title 'We've weaponized immigration rhetoric, from chain migration to Dreamers'. Next month (June 2018) a panel discussion will take place, at the Simon Fraser University in Canada, titled, Weaponizing Words: The Dilemmas of Free Speech. Peace Linguistics is a new field, emerging as a distinct entity within Applied Linguistics, which attempts to more deeply understand how language works when used in this way.
