“Mythologies of English”
When: March 13-14, 2025
Where: University of Notre Dame London Global Gateway
Bringing together scholars of the English language and English historical linguistics from around the globe, Mythologies of English is a major international symposium to be held at Notre Dame’s London Gateway center March 13-14, 2025. The conference begins with recognition that the past five centuries have witnessed dramatic changes in the grammar, speakers, domains, and uses of English. No longer the language of primarily one island-country, it is now the national and even official language of several independent nations and the most common second language in use today. English is the world’s first truly global language, even if different regions may have different grammars, use English for different purposes, and represent different attitudes towards it. These are all linguistic issues, but they are also embedded in critical frameworks, or mythologies, of ideologies, stories, images, and ideas that organize experience.
This conference will focus on the various mythologies that have framed the English language, both historically and today. These are the ideological and institutional structures that enable speakers to conceptualize the language itself and to process specific uses of it. They enable historiographic narratives that shape how the language and its uses are understood; whether or not they are true in some absolute sense, they necessarily reflect and further specific cultural expectations. Put another way, they constitute a horizon of expectations that give intellectual and social meaning to the language and how it functions. As such, they may relate to grammar, usage, the definition of dialects and other languages, speakers, domains, race, ethnicity, culture, nationhood, and morality.
Open to the public, “Mythologies of English” features 12 invited speakers: Alexandra Beytenbrat (Ben Gurion University, Israel); Nathalie Dajko (Tulane University): Mark Faulkner (University College, Dublin); William Kretzschmar (University of Georgia); Marcin Kyrgier (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland); Preetha Mani (Rutgers University); Salikoko Mufwene (University of Chicago); Lynda Mugglestone (University of Oxford): Rhiannon Purdie (University of St Andrews); John Scahill (Keio University, Japan); Gjertrud Stenbrenden (Inland Norway University); George Walkden (University of Konstanz, Germany).
Please send any questions to T. W. Machan (tmachan@nd.edu).
