Rainforest Radio: Language Oppression and Reclamation in the Western Amazon

Rainforest Radio: Language Oppression and Reclamation in the Western Amazon

Georgia Ennis

November 4, 2021
5:30 - 6:30 pm
139 Social Sciences and by Zoom.

This is a hybrid event with limited in-person capacity. Registration is required for attending on Zoom and in-person.

We have taken special measures to ensure that social distancing measures are followed, including de-densifying and marking seats. Masks are required in all Duke Buildings.

This talk theorizes the relationship between linguistic and ecological change and reframes language endangerment as a process of settler colonial oppression. Speakers of Upper Napo Kichwa confront expected and unexpected forms of domination, which have disrupted material, social, and linguistic ecologies. The ways Napo Kichwa activists and audiences engage with community media suggest new modalities for the reclamation of more-than-language, which link speech, embodied practices, and environmental knowledge.

Dr. Georgia Ennis is a Visiting Fellow in the Center for Humanities and Information at Penn State. She received her PhD in linguistic anthropology from the University of Michigan. She is currently at work on a book manuscript and companion digital archive exploring the role of community media in cultural and environmental activism in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Her research has appeared in Signs and Society, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, and Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture.

Click here to register to attend in person: https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cuVX5XqE6izYscK

Click here for the Zoom session registration: https://duke.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0lcequqj8pHdch4xIFswP3Mru2y-8ESSru