Joint WICS + Diversity Committee Meeting: Talk by Eduardo Alves Vieira on Queer Linguistics

Title: Queer Linguistics: From LGBTQIA+ folks’ language use to the deconstruction of normativities.

Speaker: Eduardo Alves Vieira (he/they) – Leiden University Centre for Linguistics

Abstract:

In this talk, I introduce the field of Queer Linguistics (QL) and focus on the research trends that have shaped the discipline in the last decades, pointing out worth-filling gaps in its literature. Since the 1970s, scholars have examined how queer/LGBTQIA+ communities use language worldwide and how people discursively construct sexual-related aspects through languages, such as identities, desires, relationships, and sexual practices. Building on Queer Studies, QL has also focused on scrutinizing social practices rooted in normativities, whether cis-hetero, homo, or trans. Although QL is a young study area that no longer holds a minority status, it has been asymmetrically introduced and explored in different countries and languages. For instance, the literature on the intersectionality of language, gender, and sexuality has been published predominantly in and about English and focused on queer communities from the Global North. In addition, these studies have focused primarily on how specific sexual identity categories use language (i.e., gays and lesbians) and excluded participants from other dissident sexualities (asexual, bisexual, polysexual) and non-hegemonic gender identities (transgender folks). During this talk, attendees will have the chance to get acquainted with some of the fashions within QL research, ultimately discussing how the field has developed as a response to earlier essentialist approaches in language, gender, and sexuality studies.

Short bio of Eduardo: 

Eduardo received their Ph.D. in 2017 at the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain), where they defended the thesis titled Brazilian Portuguese in an International Context: a Sociolinguistic, Educational, Cultural, Economic, and Geopolitical Study. They have taught at Leiden University since 2016 as Assistant Professor of Portuguese Language and Linguistics, where they carry out their teaching activities at the BA/MA Latin American Studies and BA International Studies programs. Eduardo specialized in sociolinguistics and is interested in Critical Discourse Analysis, Queer/LGBTQIA+ Linguistics, Language Policies, heritage languages, multi/bilingualism, and language identities. One of Eduardo’s main research projects is a Queer Linguistics study in which they analyze how the Brazilian queer dialect Pajubá fosters language variation in Brazilian Portuguese. From July 2023, Eduardo will start a second Queer Linguistics project with the support of an NWO grant in which they will analyze the impact of religion and its discourses in the lives of LGBTQIA+ people in Brazil.