BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//events.la.psu.edu//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20201101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20200308T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:17466-f9bfdd58af79e98f6b63c49e92cad0c5@events.la.psu.edu DTSTAMP:20260307T152906Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251017T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251017T110000 SUMMARY:African Studies Global Virtual Forum: Decoloniality and Southern Epistem ologies—Fiona McLaughlin DESCRIPTION:\nBio\n\nFiona McLaughlin is a professor of linguistics and African Languages at the University of Florida\, where she is also a mem ber of the interdisciplinary Sahel Research Group. A former director of the West Africa Research Center in Dakar\, she has taught at the Univers ité Gaston Berger in Saint-Louis\, Senegal\, and at the Université Abdou Moumouni in Niamey\, Niger.  Her current research project\, Trans-Sahar an Literacies: Writing across the Desert\, takes as its subject everyday writing in African languages from the Sahel to the Maghreb. Focusing on vernacular literacy in three scripts\, she explores the ideas and ideol ogies people associate with the scripts and orthographies they choose to illuminate social and political contestations. Her previous work focuse d on the morphophonology of the Atlantic languages\, Wolof\, Pulaar\, an d Sereer\, and on the sociolinguistics of language contact in urban west Africa\, past and present. Her publications include a number of article s on Atlantic consonant mutation that have appeared in venues such as Ph onology and  Studies in African Linguistics\, and several articles on ur ban ways of speaking that have appeared in journals such as Language in Society\, the Journal of African Cultural Studies\, and Discourse\, Cont ext and Media\, as well as in her edited volume\, The Languages of Urban Africa. Work related to her current project on vernacular literacy has been published in the journals Linguistic Landscape and Archival Science .\n\nAbstract\n\n“Fragments and fabulation: Making meaning of the pew in scriptions at First African Baptist Church in Savannah”\n\nLike historia ns\, linguists are often confronted with disjointed sources and linguist ic fragments\, but also with archival discoveries that help us to build a narrative about language in the past. This talk is about the potential and limitations of such sources and where they can lead us in our fabul ation of a linguistic past. Fabulation\, as I use it here\, is less a ma de-up story than one that cannot be verified and is as well likely to be true as false\; in other words\, fabulations are speculative narratives . The source on which I base my arguments is an elusive and suggestive f ragment of African and African-American history in the form of eighty or so inscriptions on the side panels of the church pews in the gallery of First African Baptist Church in Savannah\, Georgia. The writing on the pews runs the gamut from simple\, repetitive patterns to writing that lo oks quite a lot like the Arabic script but generates no clear meaning ei ther in Arabic or in ajami\, the use of the Arabic script to write Afric an languages\, a prevalent practice in the Senegambian region of Muslim West Africa\, where many of the early Black inhabitants of the south Geo rgia coast came from. This talk builds on an encounter with that singula r archive to explore the potential and the limitations of working with f ragmentary linguistic sources\, and the value of listening to those who have other fabulations of the same archive.\n\nFor more details: https:/ /events.la.psu.edu/event/afr-global-virtual-forum-fiona-mclaughlin/ X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Bio
Fiona McLaughlin is a professor of linguistics and African Languages at the Un iversity of Florida, where she is also a member of the interdisciplinary Sahel Research Group. A former director of the West Africa Research Cen ter in Dakar, she has taught at the Université Gaston Berger in Saint-Lo uis, Senegal, and at the Université Abdou Moumouni in Niamey, Niger.  He r current research project, Trans-Saharan Literacies: Writing across the Desert, takes as its subject everyday writing in African languages from the Sahel to the Maghreb. Focusing on vernacular literacy in three scri pts, she explores the ideas and ideologies people associate with the scr ipts and orthographies they choose to illuminate social and political co ntestations. Her previous work focused on the morphophonology of the Atl antic languages, Wolof, Pulaar, and Sereer, and on the sociolinguistics of language contact in urban west Africa, past and present. Her publicat ions include a number of articles on Atlantic consonant mutation that ha ve appeared in venues such as Phonology and  Studies in Afr ican Linguistics, and several articles on urban ways of speaking th at have appeared in journals such as Language in Society, the < em>Journal of African Cultural Studies, and Discourse, Context and Media, as well as in her edited volume, The Langua ges of Urban Africa. Work related to her current project on vernacu lar literacy has been published in the journals Linguistic Landscape and Archival Science.

Abstract
“Fragments and fabulation: Making meaning of the pew inscriptions at First African Bapt ist Church in Savannah”

Like historians, linguists are often confr onted with disjointed sources and linguistic fragments, but also with ar chival discoveries that help us to build a narrative about language in t he past. This talk is about the potential and limitations of such source s and where they can lead us in our fabulation of a linguistic past. Fab ulation, as I use it here, is less a made-up story than one that cannot be verified and is as well likely to be true as false; in other words, f abulations are speculative narratives. The source on which I base my arg uments is an elusive and suggestive fragment of African and African-Amer ican history in the form of eighty or so inscriptions on the side panels of the church pews in the gallery of First African Baptist Church in Sa vannah, Georgia. The writing on the pews runs the gamut from simple, rep etitive patterns to writing that looks quite a lot like the Arabic scrip t but generates no clear meaning either in Arabic or in ajami, the use o f the Arabic script to write African languages, a prevalent practice in the Senegambian region of Muslim West Africa, where many of the early Bl ack inhabitants of the south Georgia coast came from. This talk builds o n an encounter with that singular archive to explore the potential and t he limitations of working with fragmentary linguistic sources, and the v alue of listening to those who have other fabulations of the same archiv e.

For more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/ afr-global-virtual-forum-fiona-mclaughlin/

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