Roberto Armengol


Melissa Maceyko Entered 2007 msm7z@virginia.edu
Linguistic Anthropology Regional focus: Pacific (Papua New Guinea) Topical interests: Traditional Rhetoric, Persuasive Speech, Language Documentation, Language Endangerment, Theory of Mind, Democratic Transitions, Campaigning and Elections, Applied/Activist Anthropology, Exchange Theory. As many countries in the world have been "transitioning" into "democratic nation-states" in the last 50 years, much scholarly work has been contributed to the debate about when, and if, a country's political status becomes "consolidated" so that the nation-state can be truly identified as a functional "democracy." Modern democracies are commonly defined, unlike democracies of the past, by the presence of universal suffrage. Accordingly, electoral procedures and practices have become the main focus of democratic transition literature. The use and analysis of political rhetoric and promises are central to appropriate electoral practices in the modern (i.e. Western) "free and fair" election. Therefore, I am attempting to describe language ideologies and expectations embedded in "functional" democratic practices, and, furthermore, how these dominant ideologies may conflict with local political practices. I am planning to focus this study in Papua New Guinea (PNG), a former British and Australian colony that gained its independence in the mid 1970's. Ethnographic evidence here suggests that a wide array of Papua New Guinean languages adhere to a language ideology where speech is not necessarily expected to be true. Now a democratic state plagued by fraud and corruption, I believe that investigation of local language practices and expectations can be central to understanding democratic stability. Additionally, I am interested in the potentially disruptive impact that dominant linguistic ideologies may be having on local language practices, traditional forms of rhetoric, and local leadership roles. How did I come to this project? Rhetoric, persuasion, and the means by which policy is advanced have consistently interested me throughout my meandering academic career. After getting a B.A. in English literature and political theory from Allegheny College in 2004, working off and on for philanthropy and lobbying organizations (2002-2005), and almost going to law school, I entered a linguistics M.A. program at the University of Virginia in 2005. When I began my linguistics degree I thought that I would go to law school or get an advanced degree in political science following my M.A. in linguistics; however, after spending two years at UVA I found that linguistic anthropology provided a more interesting way to infuse qualitative methods into political analyses. After finishing my M.A. in the spring, I entered the anthropology Ph.D. program in the fall of 2007.

Melissa Maceyko

Entered 2007
msm7z@virginia.edu

Linguistic Anthropology

Regional focus: Pacific (Papua New Guinea)

Topical interests: Traditional Rhetoric, Persuasive Speech, Language Documentation, Language Endangerment, Theory of Mind, Democratic Transitions, Campaigning and Elections, Applied/Activist Anthropology, Exchange Theory.

As many countries in the world have been "transitioning" into "democratic nation-states" in the last 50 years, much scholarly work has been contributed to the debate about when, and if, a country's political status becomes "consolidated" so that the nation-state can be truly identified as a functional "democracy." Modern democracies are commonly defined, unlike democracies of the past, by the presence of universal suffrage. Accordingly, electoral procedures and practices have become the main focus of democratic transition literature.

The use and analysis of political rhetoric and promises are central to appropriate electoral practices in the modern (i.e. Western) "free and fair" election. Therefore, I am attempting to describe language ideologies and expectations embedded in "functional" democratic practices, and, furthermore, how these dominant ideologies may conflict with local political practices. I am planning to focus this study in Papua New Guinea (PNG), a former British and Australian colony that gained its independence in the mid 1970's. Ethnographic evidence here suggests that a wide array of Papua New Guinean languages adhere to a language ideology where speech is not necessarily expected to be true. Now a democratic state plagued by fraud and corruption, I believe that investigation of local language practices and expectations can be central to understanding democratic stability. Additionally, I am interested in the potentially disruptive impact that dominant linguistic ideologies may be having on local language practices, traditional forms of rhetoric, and local leadership roles.

How did I come to this project? Rhetoric, persuasion, and the means by which policy is advanced have consistently interested me throughout my meandering academic career. After getting a B.A. in English literature and political theory from Allegheny College in 2004, working off and on for philanthropy and lobbying organizations (2002-2005), and almost going to law school, I entered a linguistics M.A. program at the University of Virginia in 2005. When I began my linguistics degree I thought that I would go to law school or get an advanced degree in political science following my M.A. in linguistics; however, after spending two years at UVA I found that linguistic anthropology provided a more interesting way to infuse qualitative methods into political analyses. After finishing my M.A. in the spring, I entered the anthropology Ph.D. program in the fall of 2007.