Dr. Bernard Perley (Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies UBC) will give a colloquium talk in the TFS seminar room:
Language Fantasies in Technotopia: Hammers, Rabbits, and Plugs…Oh My!
Abstract: The pandemic has forced all of us to become more familiar with techno-mediated communication and sociality in ways some celebrate, others bemoan, and most accommodate as a necessary adaptation to forced isolation. Despite isolation, technophiles, technophobes, and tech-agnostics gathered in virtual rooms to create disembodied social worlds. Language revitalization activities also shifted to virtual language instruction classrooms in the Zoomscape. After a year and a half of living in the Zoomscape we find ourselves residents of Technotopia, a brave new world of posthuman potential and access to limitless data and 24/7 connectivity to the hive-mind. Are we witness to a pivotal moment that will usher in the techno-panacea for endangered languages? Will Technotopian alchemists create supercomputers for language documentation, to enable language instruction, and to catalyze language vitality? This talk explores those possibilities using hammers, rabbits, and plugs.