Longstanding international security structures seem to be falling apart. For decades, global stability has relied on US leadership, a premise that is now in question as the US redefines its position. The NATO alliance, the single most important contributor to peace and security in North America and Europe, is in crisis. The conflict between India and Pakistan has significant implications for global security with its potential for nuclear escalation and the impact on trade and economic stability. At the nexus of the erosion of international cooperation and security is language.
“Snakes,” “Cockroaches,” and “Termites”: Linguistic Cues and National Security is a two-day seminar that brings together scholars across several disciplines to discuss how language use contributes to the deterioration of national and international security. Through connections across diverse fields such as international studies, political science, and linguistics, the seminar will explore how language interweaves forms of linguistic coding with patterns of violence and the pivotal role that language plays in both human and international security.
The goal of the seminar is to study how language is critical to our understanding of security dynamics, which includes how security is perceived by those under threat as well as those creating the threats. A key areas of focus include the deterioration of international cooperation in security and how language has played a role in this deterioration and how language both maintains and loses significance in this evolving landscape.
Confirmed panelists and contributors include:
- Luvell Anderson, University of Illinois
- David Beaver, University of Texas at Austin
- Ashwini Deo, University of Texas at Austin
- Laura Dugan, The Ohio State University
- Micha Elsner, The Ohio State University
- Jessica Kantarovich, The Ohio State University
- IIa Nagar, The Ohio State University
- Dorothy Noyes, The Ohio State University
- Joyojeet Pal, University of Michigan
- Joy Peltier, The Ohio State University
- Eric Schoon, The Ohio State University
- Jaroslav Tir, University of Colorado, Boulder
- Lynne Tirrell, University of Connecticut
- Inés Valdez, Johns Hopkins University
Seminar Program
Seminar Program March 26, Day 1
Session I. Words at War: The Role of Language in Genocide and Military Discourse
The most direct threat language poses is coded in slurs and deeply derogatory words. This session features Lynne Tirrell, a philosopher of language who has done extensive work on the role of language in genocide in Rwanda; Luvell Anderson, a philosopher who studies slurs and hate speech; and Jessica Kantarovich, a sociolinguist who studies language preservation and indigenous rights in the context of Greenland. Facilitating a panel discussion will be Eric Schoon, a sociologist from The Ohio State University who studies the cultural dimensions of political violence.
- 9:00–9:30am: Welcome and breakfast
- 9:30–10:00am: Lynne Tirrell, University of Connecticut
- 10:00–10:30am: Luvell Anderson, University of Illinois
- 10:30–11:00am: Jessica Kantarovich, The Ohio State University
- 11:00am-12:00pm: Panel discussion led by Eric Schoon, The Ohio State University
- Noon–1:15pm: Lunch
Session II. Linguistic Cues to Graded Citizenship
Using dehumanizing language for immigrants is part of the process of alienating them and limiting their movement and their presence. Dehumanizing language is also useful in producing ways of decreasing participation of specific parts of the population in democracy. This session features presentations by Joyojeet Pal, who studies the role of social media in dismantling democratic frameworks, Ines Valdez, also a political scientist who studies transnationalism, labor, and capitalism, and Ila Nagar, who studies connections between language use and legislative action. The discussion for this session will be led by either Joy Peltier.
The keynote speaker for the first day, David Beaver, is a semanticist and philosopher of language who along with Jason Stanley (Yale University) wrote The Politics of Language (Princeton University Press). Beaver will speak to ways in which language use by politicians undervalues democracy and free thinking.
- 1:30–2:00pm: Joyojeet Pal, University of Michigan
- 2:00–2:30pm: Ines Valdez, Johns Hopkins University
- 2:30–3:00pm: Ila Nagar, The Ohio State University
- 3:00–4:00pm: Discussion led by Joy Peltier, The Ohio State University
- 4:00–4:15pm: Break
- 4:15–5:15pm: Keynote speaker David Beaver, University of Texas at Austin
Seminar Program March 27, Day 2
Session III. Speaking Your Place: Dehumanizing Language and Belonging
Social hierarchies, such as those presented by class structures, become alive in the use of dialects (as in the context of India) and in the contested use of different languages and what they might signal in the United States and South Asia. This session examines the threat that the use of nondominant dialects and languages poses to residents and citizens. Ashwini Deo, a linguist and expert on historical semantics and Indo-European languages and dialect variation in the Indian context, will speak to how historical and contemporary use of nondominant language varieties sets negative actions against users in motion, Micha Elsner will speak about large language models in emergency contexts, Jaroslav Tir will speak to how discourse about language use creates discrimination. The discussant for this session, Anna Babel, an expert on bilingualism, will speak to ways language use creates social and cultural hierarchies.
The keynote speaker for the second day, Laura Dugan, is a political scientist who studies violence, security studies, and populism. Dugan will speak on the linguistic coding to political dynamics, especially around international security and violence.
- 9:00–9:30am: Breakfast
- 9:30–10:00am: Ashwini Deo, University of Texas at Austin
- 10:00–10:30am: Micha Elsner, The Ohio State University
- 10:30–11:00am: Jaroslav Tir, University of Colorado Boulder
- 11:00am–12:00pm: Discussion led by Anna Babel, The Ohio State University
- Noon–2:00pm: Lunch
- 2:00–3:00pm: Keynote Speaker Laura Dugan, The Ohio State University
- 3:00–3:15pm: Closing statement by Dorothy Noyes, Director, Mershon Center for International Security Studies