Speaking In Color: Code-Meshing Against Standard Language Ideology In The Public Speaking Classroom,
2026
National Coalition of Independent Scholars
Speaking In Color: Code-Meshing Against Standard Language Ideology In The Public Speaking Classroom, Darrion A. Walker
Journal of Communication Pedagogy
Public speaking courses do more than teach presentation skills; they also teach students which voices count as credible. In Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs), instructional norms tied to standard language ideology position standardized English as the unmarked benchmark of professional communication. For students who speak African American Language (AAL) or other culturally informed language varieties, this creates a double bind: conform linguistically or risk being penalized for rhetorical authenticity. This reflective essay identifies the double bind as an underexamined problem in communication pedagogy and suggests that code-meshing—the intentional blending of multiple language varieties within a single communicative act—offers a more equitable, …
A Catalyst For Change: The Extraordinary Anaka Women’S Collective During The June 2026 Belfast Pogrom,
2026
Las Casas Institute for Social Justice, Oxford University
A Catalyst For Change: The Extraordinary Anaka Women’S Collective During The June 2026 Belfast Pogrom, Dianne Kirby
The Journal of Social Encounters
Prompted by the pogrom that erupted in Belfast in June this year, this article explores how a women’s collective, Anaka, established by female asylum seekers, refugees and migrants (ASRMs) less than a decade previously, took the lead in ensuring the safety and welfare of the city’s migrant communities in a context where they were horrifically failed by police and politicians, by the state and the institutions meant to protect them. Anaka began as a small-scale endeavour to mitigate the difficulties confronting women struggling to navigate a harsh asylum system. It became a widely respected advocacy and campaigning group for ASRMs. …
Operation Metro Surge In Central Minnesota: A Personal Perspective,
2026
College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University
Operation Metro Surge In Central Minnesota: A Personal Perspective, Pedro A. G. Dos Santos
The Journal of Social Encounters
This essay provides a personal account, grounded in social science intellectual traditions and methods, of Operation Metro Surge and its aftermath in Central Minnesota. Emphasizing the differences between what happened in Central Minnesota (and other rural areas in the state) and what happened in the Twin Cities Metro area, this essay focuses on two events to contextualize the ways in which Operation Metro Surge disrupted the lives of immigrants and of the Minnesotans trying to protect their neighbors.
Debates Over Nonviolence And Violence In History: An Interview With Doug Mcgetchin, Ph.D.,
2026
College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University
Debates Over Nonviolence And Violence In History: An Interview With Doug Mcgetchin, Ph.D.
The Journal of Social Encounters
No abstract provided.
Contradiction And Critical Consciousness: Engaging Canadian University Students In Racial Dialogue On Anti-Chinese Racism,
2026
Brock University
Contradiction And Critical Consciousness: Engaging Canadian University Students In Racial Dialogue On Anti-Chinese Racism, Dan Cui
Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education
This study examines how Canadian university students perceived and engaged with anti-Chinese racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on grounded theory and interviews and written reflections from 28 undergraduates at a predominantly White university, the study analyzes students’ contradictory understandings of racism shaped by media, national narratives, and prior educational experiences. Informed by Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, it conceptualizes these tensions as a contradictory racialized habitus, in which awareness and denial, empathy and distancing, coexist. Three themes emerged: contradictory orientations toward anti-Chinese racism, the transnational influence of U.S. political discourse, and the limited transformative impact of a social justice course. …
Corazón De Nopal, Alma De Monarca: The Invisible Workforce,
2026
University of San Diego
Corazón De Nopal, Alma De Monarca: The Invisible Workforce, Vanessa Estrada Garza
McNair Summer Research Program
In many parts of the United States, Day Laborers, people who work for a daily wage, congregate in front of home improvement stores in the hopes that the customers buying materials are also in need of labor. Day laborers, who are mostly Latino men, experience a plethora of adversities (e.g., wage theft, discrimination based on status or race, on-site injuries). However, it is also important to understand day laborers’ experiences within the current sociopolitical climate (Fernandez-Esquer et al., 2022; Ramirez, 2011; Ordoñez, 2015; Walter et al., 2004). At times the stories and humanity of these individuals outside of their labor …
Front Matter,
2026
Kennesaw State University
Front Matter, Maya America Editors
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Full issue of Maya America, volume 8, issue 1.
Full Issue - Maya America V8, I1,
2026
Kennesaw State University
Full Issue - Maya America V8, I1, Maya America Editors
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Includes Cover Art and Table of Contents
Introduction: Maya Language Advocacy And Mayas’ Production Of Cultural Knowledge,
2026
University at Albany
Introduction: Maya Language Advocacy And Mayas’ Production Of Cultural Knowledge, Walter E. Little
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
This introductory essay is part of the special issue Maya America, Volume 8, Issue 1, guest-edited and coordinated by the Mayan Languages Preservation Project. The 10 authors of the various research articles and commentaries represent eight of Guatemala’s 22 Maya languages. What brings these essays into relationship with each other are the pragmatic concerns of strengthening Maya languages, such as providing academic, professional, and social services contexts for using and not merely maintaining these languages but helping them thrive. Each author in this special issue has actively worked in various ways to promote Mayan language and cultural knowledge preservation. As …
Geographic Origins Of Mam Interpretation Encounters At La Clínica De La Raza Fruitvale Village In Oakland, California: Informed By A Survey-Based Study,
2026
Mam Interpreter and Independent Ethnographer
Geographic Origins Of Mam Interpretation Encounters At La Clínica De La Raza Fruitvale Village In Oakland, California: Informed By A Survey-Based Study, Anibal Pablo
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
This study examined the geographic origins of Mam Maya who sought interpretation services at La Clínica de la Raza’s Fruitvale Village Pediatrics department in Oakland, California. Between February 22 and September 6, 2024. The results showed that 95% of interpretation encounters involved respondents from three municipalities – Todos Santos Cuchumátan, San Juan Atitán, and Santiago Chimaltenango – located within the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes region of western Guatemala. This concentrated pattern suggests that the Fruitvale Mam community is largely rooted in a specific set of municipalities whose linguistic variants and cultural practices have important implications for interpreter training and healthcare …
Who Owns Land, Who Owns Language? Challenging The Commercialization Of Indigenous Language Data,
2026
Heriot-Watt University
Who Owns Land, Who Owns Language? Challenging The Commercialization Of Indigenous Language Data, Matthew Riemland
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
As Indigenous scholars and activists have pointed out, the commercialization of Indigenous language data resembles the historical and ongoing dispossession of Indigenous land. Using Mayan languages as a case study, this article illustrates the process by which digital advertising platforms – Google and Meta – appropriate and benefit commercially from Indigenous language data, drawing parallels with the dispossession of Indigenous land. It identifies the significant costs of this commercialization to Indigenous communities, including the lack of compensation for the Indigenous language data’s commercial value, the distortion of Indigenous communities’ linguistic and cultural representation online, and the reinforcement of extractive relationships …
La Violencia: Family Stories Of Labor, War, And Migration,
2026
University at Albany
La Violencia: Family Stories Of Labor, War, And Migration, Gabriela Merida
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Gabriela Merida, a doctoral student at the University of Albany and a child of Guatemalan Maya refugees, interviews her grandmother and father about their lives in Guatemala and their subsequent experiences as migrants in the United States. Through life history interviews with each of them, Merida examines how foreign intervention shaped the economic and political realities that compelled them to migrate. She employs Giovanni Batz’s (2024) concept of the four invasions as an analytic frame to demonstrate how the historical arc of colonization, the plantation economy, the Guatemalan Civil War, and capitalism produce compounding forms of structural and quotidian violence …
Mayan Languages And Technological Inclusion: The Mayan Languages Preservation Project As An Applied Model To Create Equity In Language Access,
2026
The Mayan Languages Preservation Project
Mayan Languages And Technological Inclusion: The Mayan Languages Preservation Project As An Applied Model To Create Equity In Language Access, Winston Scott
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
This article traces the project's founding, structure, and achievements over three years, documenting a community-led effort to create digital resources, including talking glossaries, keyboards, tools to help communities create textbooks for schools, and machine translation corpora for the 22 Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala. Drawing on principles of communitybased language documentation and recognized under UNESCO’s International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL 2022–2032), the project confronts intersecting challenges of poverty, illiteracy, digital exclusion, and the ethical risks of data extraction by external actors. The author argues that meaningful language digitization should be guided by native speakers and community organizations, rather than …
Who I Am,
2026
Kennesaw State University
Who I Am, Andrea Per
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
I have many beautiful memories from my childhood visiting my grandma in the village of Patzicía, Guatemala. Usually, my cousins and I helped her feed her chickens and collect eggs. She also had turkeys, bunnies, and many other animals, including a parrot that my aunts and uncles bought for her so she wouldn’t feel alone during the day. After helping her, Grandma Rafaela usually invited us to enjoy a traditional Maya dinner: black beans, rice, homemade cheese, and handmade tortillas cooked on her comal over a traditional firewood stove, along with a warm drink she made from toasted corn powder. …
Sentimiento Maya Frente A La Injusticia: Qué Es Ser Maya,
2026
Kennesaw State University
Sentimiento Maya Frente A La Injusticia: Qué Es Ser Maya, Kawoq Baldomero Cuma
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
¿Qué es ser maya? El sentimiento de ser maya se refleja en todo nuestro y entorno, como lo es nuestra cosmovisión, donde emerge mucha sabiduría y arte, que muestran nuestra identidad. Los pueblos originarios tenemos un tronco común en nuestras vivencias, y eso nos hace identificarnos con el mismo sentir. Solo expresamos nuestros pensamientos sobre todas las vicisitudes de los distintos escenarios de nuestra historia. Así pues, este ensayo sirve como un llamado a alzar nuestra voz colectiva, para hacer saber al mundo que perduramos —que existimos— a pesar de las indignidades que hemos sufrido en un mundo desigual.
Lenguas Vivas: La Importancia De Preservar El Idioma Mam Y Las Lenguas Indígenas De Guatemala,
2026
Kennesaw State University
Lenguas Vivas: La Importancia De Preservar El Idioma Mam Y Las Lenguas Indígenas De Guatemala, Sindy Villagrez
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Cada vez que una lengua indígena deja de hablarse, el mundo pierde una manera única de entender la vida, la naturaleza y la experiencia humana. Con ella desaparecen historias transmitidas durante generaciones, conocimientos construidos a través de siglos de observación y experiencia, formas particulares de relacionarse con la comunidad y visiones del mundo que no pueden reproducirse completamente en ningún otro idioma. Estas lenguas forman parte del patrimonio cultural de la humanidad porque conservan conocimientos sobre la agricultura, la medicina tradicional, la convivencia comunitaria y la relación respetuosa con la naturaleza. También guardan valores, memorias y formas de pensamiento que …
My Experience As A Mayan Language Interpreter,
2026
Kennesaw State University
My Experience As A Mayan Language Interpreter, Misael Itzep
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Misael discusses his experiences as a court interpreter for K’iche’ migrants in the United States. He has witnessed that “many of my compatriots don't consider that driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, fleeing after an accident, leaving a minor alone at home ‘for a moment’, hitting their partner, etc., has serious repercussions under the law in the United States, something that rarely has legal consequences in Guatemala. For example, in Guatemala, many driving laws aren’t enforced, such as the requirement to wear a seatbelt or to stop at a red traffic light. In contrast, laws are enforced in …
Importance Of Maya Culinary Traditions In Cultural Identity,
2026
Kennesaw State University
Importance Of Maya Culinary Traditions In Cultural Identity, Claudia Pacay
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Elder women play a crucial role in preserving Mayan identity through food, serving as the primary keepers and transmitters of traditional culinary knowledge. Through everyday cooking and special ceremonial meals, they pass down ancestral recipes, techniques, and the symbolic meanings of ingredients to younger generations. These foods are deeply connected to Mayan history, agriculture, spirituality, and community life — such as the use of native maize, traditional grinding methods, and dishes prepared for rituals and celebrations. By teaching children and grandchildren how to prepare these foods and explaining when and why they are eaten, elder women help maintain cultural continuity …
Woven In Silence: Maya Q’Anjob’Al Cosmology,
2026
Kennesaw State University
Woven In Silence: Maya Q’Anjob’Al Cosmology, Gaspar Tomas
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
The Q’anjob’al, Akateko, and Chuj communities of the Guatemalan highlands are among many Maya communities that are flourishing with knowledge that draws on the classical-period Maya civilization and infuses it with contemporary practices. This knowledge guided the Maya people in building a stronger relationship with the natural and spiritual worlds: the very foundation of our social structure and the key to understanding our place in this universe. The survival of our culture, our languages, and our oral traditions all played a critical role in preserving our worldview, but the one that stands resilient above all is the one recorded on …
Witchcraft Dialogues : Anthropological And Philosophical Exchanges,
2026
Ohio University
Witchcraft Dialogues : Anthropological And Philosophical Exchanges, George Clement Bond, Diane M. Ciekawy
Ohio University Press Open Access Books
Witchcraft Dialogues analyzes the complex manner in which human beings construct, experience, and think about the occult. It brings together anthropologists, philosophers, and sociologists, from diverse social and cultural backgrounds, to engage the metaphysical properties of witchcraft and sorcery and to explore their manifestations in people’s lived experiences.
While many Africanist scholars shun the analysis of witchcraft as an appropriate domain of investigation, the experiences, thoughts, activities, and powers that witchcraft encompasses have become increasingly the source of interest and debate. Concepts of witchcraft and the phenomena to which they are applied express something fundamental to the human condition and …
