The 5th issue of the IGALA blog is out

Welcome to the fifth issue of the Igala Blog, the first of 2017.

The previous fourth issues have mainly dealt with language and gender, this issue is dedicated to language and sexuality. Coming from gender, I am myself finding this field – language and sexuality – more and more interesting and I am sure you will enjoy the two contributions below. This semester I was lucky to contribute to the module “Communicating Sexuality” at Edge Hill University (while also teaching Language and Gender at Sheffield University) and I can see how important is to discuss aspects of language and sexuality with the students. When I first asked them why they had chosen this module, they told me that it had to do with how close they felt this was to the “outside (the university) world” and how relevant this was for their personal growth. I see these answers as a victory – with our studies and our teaching we are also helping students becoming aware citizens of today (and tomorrow!).

The two contributors of this issue are:

Our own Lucy Jones, Assistant Professor in Sociolinguistics at the University of Nottingham, UK. Her post discusses ethnographic work conducted in the UK with an LGTB group and her personal experience of meeting these young people.
Kyohei Itakura, PhD student at University of California, Davis. In this post, the author discusses possible interpretations of the implications made by the translator of a porn video.

You can contact Lucy and Kyohei if you have questions or comments on their posts (see contact details in their posts) or you can share your thoughts with us on our Facebook and Twitter page. Alternatively, you can write a “reply” post to these or those appeared in the previous issues, discussing similarities or differences in your own work.

We will keep in touch for the next call for posts for the IGALA blog! If you have ideas, comments, suggestions, please do not hesitate to let us know! You can email me at federicaformato.ac@gmail.com.

I look forward to hearing from all Igala-ers in the world!