THE 4^rd INTERNATIONAL INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE

ON LANGUAGE AFFAIRS (IICoLA)

“Language and Ethnicity”

A. Introduction

Public concerns and perceptions of “ethnic language’ seem messier and more multi-faceted than current methods and concepts disclose. The study of language and ethnicity has social and psychological dimensions that require interdisciplinary analysis and innovative methodological inroads – yet the vast majority of research in this area has lacked such ambition.

In this conference topic, the speakers will review, from an interdisciplinary perspective, literature on everyday ethnic languages that has so far gone unexplored by those scholars interested in the topic. There is a large and rapidly expanding body of  ethnic language research (see Davidson et al. 2003); however, only recently have scholars begun to build an understanding of the ethnic language experience during the course of their day-to-day lives. One of the largest studies of real-life ethnic language involved a series of surveys that focused on describing the probabilities of experiencing certain ethnic language in everyday life and on the socio-demographic and situational factors that influence these probabilities (Scherer et al, 2002). The body of work on everyday emotions has also encompassed studies in psychology (Frijda, 1986), a number of ethnographic studies concerned with ‘how ethnic languages researched’ (Katz, 1999) how they are ‘managed’ across the settings of everyday life (Hochschild, 1983) and the development of a diverse ‘ethnic language concept’ (Kemper, 1990; Wouters, 1992; Williams and Bendelow, 1998). These contributions are noteworthy; not least because they offer a conceptual vocabulary that may well have much to offer social research, but also because they address pertinent methodological questions concerning research on emotions and therefore place a significant emphasis on ensuring the ecological and external validity of results.

These studies of ethnic languages particularly in Indonesia have not only provided rich and valuable data but have also developed a constructive discussion of both methodological and theoretical issues. Such issues are pertinent to the study of the fear of crime since they may help us to formulate a more comprehensive picture of what fear of crime actually is as a lived experience. This topic begins with a short review of the conceptual and methodological problems within the fear of crime literature, before considering the different perspectives on emotion which have emerged more recently. We assess how a multi-disciplinary analysis might facilitate a more theoretically and methodologically robust interpretative framework. Lastly, the conference outline how new methodological techniques employed by researchers studying everyday emotions might be employed to go ‘back to basics, as it were, to assess what fear of crime measures are actually measuring.

B. Objectives

Based on the effort to create a section for the development of science, particularly in language, the objectives are:

1. To expand the Linguistics Program's perception at Universitas Sumatera Utara Faculty of Cultural Study about ethnic language study as a linguistic phenomenon.
2. To examine language, culture and history, literature, psychology, communication, and politics that are linked to language and ethnicity.
3. To build synergy from various fields of study in studying language and identity.

C. Primary Speakers

1. Christel Broady, Ph.D, (Asbury University, USA)
2. Ana Tankosic, PhD (Curtin University, Australia)
3. Prof. Pham Vu Phi Ho, Ph.D (Van Lang University, Vietnam)
4. Prof. Dr. Lukman (Universitas Hasanuddin, Indonesia)
5. Nurenzia Yanuar, MA, Ph.D (Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia)
6. Dr. Erikson Saragih, S.Pd, M.Hum (Universitas Sumatera Utara, Indonesia)

D. Date of execution

This 3^rd International Interdisciplinary Conference on Language Affairs will be held virtually in Medan, North Sumatra, on Tuesday, October 18, 2023, from 08:00 – 17:00 WIB.

E. Target of activity

The number of participants in this conference is targeted at around 300 participants consisting of experts in linguistics, psychology, politics, literature, and education. Besides, it also consists of researchers, lecturers, and college students.

F. Committee

Guarantor : Dr. ‪T. Thyrhaya Zein, M.A (Dean)

Vice guarantor : Dra. Heristina Dewi, M.Pd. (Vice Dean 2) (Head of Program Study)

Chairman : Dr. Mulyadi, M.Hum. (Head of Program Study)

Secretary : Dr. Erikson Saragih, S.Pd, M.Hum.

G. Form of activity

This activity comes during the conference that will be participated by six primary speakers and a number of accompanying presenters. All presentations will be booked as ISBN proceedings, Journal Linguistic Terapan and Sastra, or International Journal: Linguistics of Sumatra, and Malay.