Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of How Cooperation Emerges in Multiethnic Contexts

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Anthropologists have long established that social cohesion and enduring interpersonal relationships can be difficult to establish in dynamic multiethnic and multicultural environments. When they are not, the consequences can be adverse: contexts marked by poorly formed social relationships can correlate to interethnic conflict. Conversely, social cohesion and cooperation among diverse individuals and groups can have positive social impacts (for example, such contexts can become important trade centers). This project, which trains a graduate student in how to conduct rigorous scientific fieldwork in the study of language and culture, asks what linguistic anthropological evidence exists to explain how cooperation between linguistically and culturally diverse individuals and groups emerges. Mr. Nikolas Sweet under the supervision of Dr. Judith Irvine of the University of Michigan will how explore interpersonal relationships are formed in heteroglossic, dynamic contexts. This project questions what sociolinguistic evidence exists to explain how cooperation and cohesion is achieved among diverse individuals and groups. The research takes place in a formerly marginalized region in Senegal on the Guinea border, a context once characterized by interethnic conflict which has now become the site of significant trade, transportation, artisanal gold mining, and in-migration from all across Senegal and West Africa. As such, it is a novel site for a sociolinguistic study of how multilingual speakers from diverse backgrounds develop interpersonal relationships. This is a two-phase project that compares a rural context and large regional center, with the aim of exploring differences in the communicative practices between urban and rural centers, and how access to trade networks impacts language use. Through an in-depth study of face-to-face conversations in multiple languages between differentially positioned individuals, this project will be able to investigate how ethnic and national associations--categories that are too often taken for granted--are in fact negotiated in verbal interactions. Finally, this project contributes to understandings of how proximity to national borders affects individuals' linguistic practices.