Please join us once more in Cobb Hall 115 on Friday, November 3 at 3:30 PM, where our very own Steven Castro will be presenting on his upcoming fieldwork in Fiji.

Language Use Among Mixed-Race Individuals in the Fiji Islands: A Fieldwork Preview

How has Fiji’s complex history with contact, linguistic, racial, and cultural mixing affected the way that mixed-race individuals conceptualize and situate themselves through language. This research aims to observe the ways mixed-race individuals us linguistic resources such as: labels, names, language choice and switching practices, to situate themselves and create a “mixed” identity. This work looks at the ways in which the linguistic techniques used by mixed-race individuals in the Fiji Islands interact with and speak to the broader conceptualizations of racial (mixed-race) identity, nationalism, and linguistic identity. The data for this project will be collected through fieldwork in Fiji (to come) consisting of sociolinguistic interviews, group interviews, participant and environmental observations, and informal discussions (Talanoa). These data, along with those collected from publicly available signage, and social observations will serve as the basis for the research questions.

The goal of my presentation at the LVC workshop is to outline the history and literature, explain where my dissertation work fits in, and run through my proposed fieldwork schedule, methodology, and hypotheses.