Austin Vander Wel presented his research at the Linguistic Landscapes 14th International Workshop in Madrid
Thanks to the Georgetown Americas Institute student grant, Austin Vander Wel was able to co-present his paper on DC’s commitment to linguistic representation on public transport with Katherin Vargas Henao at the Linguistic Landscapes 14th International Workshop in Madrid.
Austin’s study employs critical language-policy theory (Tollefson, 2005) and a linguistic landscapes methodology to explore the District of Columbia’s commitment to addressing the need for equal linguistic representation on public transportation, following the enactment of the Language Access Act in 2004. It compares conditions in digital spaces, such as Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) website and hotline, with in situ spaces, including bus and metro areas. By employing a mixed methods approach, it unveils clear disparities between digital and physical spaces in the representation of Spanish on DC public transportation. While digital spaces were considered to fulfill the commitment to linguistic representation, a notable difference was identified in situ. These discrepancies place individuals with limited or no proficiency in English at a disadvantage, requiring additional resources in order to have equal access to this public service (Ruíz, 1984; Tollefson, 2005).
Austin Vander Wel was able to use his GAI grant to co-present this paper with Katherin Vargas Henao at the Linguistic Landscapes 14th International Workshop in Madrid. There, they received valuable feedback to improve the research. They have since presented their work in UC Berkeley’s Linguistics Landscape Lectures series. The study is currently under review for publication.