INS/URGENT CONVERSATIONS: doing linguistics in contemporary reality

Interview with Daniela Lauría

Abstract

The III international Encounter: derechos lingüísticos como derechos humanos en Latinoamérica. CONVERSACIONES INS/URGENTES took place on May 21, 22 and 23, 2024, at the Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades (UNC). This encounter “ discusses the relationship between linguistic rights and human rights, between the right to speak and the right to a dignified life, the right to one's own speech and thought, the right to say and to do” (Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades, 2024). Within this framework, our objective was to dialogue with various representatives of the field on the role of linguists, and on what it means to “do linguistics” in the current socio-political context. To this end, we conducted a series of semi-structured interviews based on five basic questions. This collective activity was carried out during the Encounter by the different members of the FORMAR research project “La Conformación del Corpus como Problema y como Proceso en Estudios de Caso sobre Diversidad y Variación Lingüística” (SECyT 2023), coordinated by Sofía De Mauro and Luisa Domínguez. Each participant included the questions in the conversation in different ways: some of us read them, others paraphrased them, others included them in a more open dialogue.In this particular interview, we spoke with Daniela Lauria to think about “the challenge of living in a livable world where the battle for language is recognized as a battle for rights” (Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities, 2024).