Mobilising language, gender and sexuality studies

Authors

  • Lynnette Arnold University of Massachusetts
  • Kristine Køhler Mortensen University of Copenhagen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.26689

Keywords:

activism, gender, migration, mobility, scale, sexuality

Abstract

This introduction frames the special issue ‘Mobilising Language, Gender and Sexuality Studies’, situating the contributions in relation to interdisciplinary scholarship on migration, gender, sexuality and language. In particular, this introduction draws attention to Global South theorisations of migration as resistance, suggesting that scholars of language, gender and sexuality can build on such approaches to trace forms of agency that otherwise might go unnoticed. The contributions to this special issue investigate how gender and language circulate in dominant migration discourses and are contested by mobile communities, linking normative ideologies to individual bodies and lives through the use of stereotyped figures. The introduction also highlights how themes of time, place and nation weave through the contributions and calls for a scalar approach that resists the widespread downscaling of migrants’ own discursive acts. It concludes with a call to action that urges scholars to consider how they might support the ways in which mobile communities are making sense of and taking action in the world.

Author Biographies

  • Lynnette Arnold, University of Massachusetts

    Lynnette Arnold is Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, United States. Her research examines the power of language in contexts of mobility and migration in the Americas. She aims to advance social justice through a deeper understanding of language. Recent publications include ‘Communication as Care Across Borders’ (American Anthropologist) and ‘Accompanying as Accomplices’ (Language and Linguistics Compass).

  • Kristine Køhler Mortensen, University of Copenhagen

    Kristine Køhler Mortensen is Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen. Her research falls within critical sociolinguistics, with a primary focus on gender and sexuality. It includes projects focusing on online dating, youth and social media interaction, sexuality and the nation, sexuality education in asylum contexts and critical issues of Danish coloniality in relation to Greenland.

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Published

2024-01-12

How to Cite

Arnold, L., & Mortensen, K. K. (2024). Mobilising language, gender and sexuality studies. Gender and Language, 17(4), 317-328. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.26689