Time/Date: Thursday, September 25, 2025 (3:30-5:00 pm)
Speaker: Kris Aric Knisely, University of Arizona
Title: Shifting power, subverting cislingualism: Gender-justice language education
Abstract: Language –a social and relational act– is one of few, if not the mechanism through which we make ourselves known. As we language, we prefigure new possibilities for the collective imaginary, for the worlds in which we live and those we wish to bring into being. That these worlds are so frequently manifested within rigid gender binaries illustrates the power and pervasiveness of cislingualism (i.e., the valuing of cisnormative cultures of language and the ideologies that inflect them). In this session, we will engage distinctly trans approaches to language and linguistics (e.g., trans translanguaging, direct and indirect nonbinary languaging) to explore the role of trans epistemologies in gender justice (e.g., language-as-social-verb, learning-as-participation, prefigurative politics, (in)effability, agency, undoing competence). In keeping, we will consider the limits of inclusionary approaches, the possibilities for coalition- and community-based capacity building, and the power of gender-just education. Open access resources will be provided.
Bio: Dr. Kris Aric Knisely is Associate Professor of French and Intercultural Competence as well as affiliated faculty in both SLAT and TSRC at the University of Arizona. Knisely’s research focuses on the interplay between the social, relational practices of doing language and doing gender, particularly as they relate to language education and trans linguacultures. Knisely’s work has appeared in a variety of venues including Contemporary French Civilization, CFC Intersections, Critical Multilingualism Studies, Foreign Language Annals, The French Review, Gender and Language, and Modern Language Journal, among others. Knisely is also co-editor (with Eric Russel, UC-Davis) of Redoing linguistic worlds: Unmaking gender binaries, remaking gender pluralities (Multilingual Matters).