Conference Review

A Review of The International Societyof Language Studies (ISLS) 2019
ConferenceTim Murphey
Kanda University of International Studies
The International Society for Language Studies (ISLS), co-sponsored by The
Open University of Hong Kong (https://www.isls.co), held a conference in Hong
Kong from June 20-22, 2019. The theme of the conference was “Disrupting andRecreating Beliefs in Language Studies.” ISLS has had annual conferences since
2002 and is composed of an active group of researchers worldwide who thriveon critical studies which seek to foster cross disciplinarity and participate in theongoing restructuring of the Humanities and Social Sciences while contesting
conventional frames and perspectives, whether historical or current. A main
objective of the conference was to bridge “arbitrary disciplinary territories
and provide a forum for both theoretical and empirical research, from existingand emergent research methodologies, for exploring the relationships among
language, power, discourses, and social practices” (quoted from the call forpapers).
They publish such studies in an excellent series of books and their well-known
flagship journal: Critical Inquiry in Language Studies. I highly recommend thisannual conference to all teacher-researchers who also see themselves as wanting
to improve society and the world and are not afraid of critical discussions.
Selected conference papers will be published in a special issue of Critical
Inquiry in Language Studies: An International Journal or in the Readingsin Language Studies a peer-reviewed book series in 2020. Both publication
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opportunities are peer-reviewed and extremely professional from my personal
experiences with them (see Murphey, 2019; Johnson & Murphey, 2018).
This year, 2019, about 150 participants from all over the world met for threedays, and about 90-100 presentations were given. Thus, about two thirds of theattendants were also presenters which made for a very interactive and dialecticalconference with deep conversations, considerations, conceptualizations, andcollaborations, and most importantly, a lot of learning and opening of minds.
I went to my first ISLS conference in Hawaii 2017 and I immediately
appreciated the participants desire to engage with each other, the world, andcritical issues that could make the world a better place. So, this was my second
conference, and it was held in the middle of the Hong Kong political protests
against the criminal extradition bill conducted by 12 local student organizations
and the general population. While Hong Kong is hot and humid at this time ofyear, the protests made it even more intense.
On June 21 and 22, the Hong Kong government closed down its offices andcancelled all meeting due to the protests. The universality of language, equity
issues, ethics, communication, and political justice makes the ISLS group
immediately primed to engage with such issues and how they play themselves
out in the real world. While our academic presentations did not directly addressthe protests themselves, there was an underlying feeling of striving for socialjustice. Although not explicitly addressed in the presentations, the protests werethe main topic during many coffee breaks.
The opening communal session for the conference was on target, with threeHong Kong professors: first Miron Bhowmik on “The Critical Race Perspectivein Language Dominating Discourses”; second Carlos Soto on “Reconsidering
Criticality in Late Capitalism: Implications for Language Based Research”; third
was Michelle Gu on “A Spacious-Temporal Analysis of the Interplay Between
Identity, Power, and Discourse: Migrant families as the Locus of Investigation”.
After each speaker gave a short presentation on their themes, they then discussed
more generally inequities for minoritized communities in Hong Kong andhow research on language has both disrupted and reified these inequities ineducation. There was also a chance for questions from the audience concerning
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the emerging sites of promise and struggle for social justice in Hong Kong and its
position as a Special Administrative Region of mainland China.
Some other highlights were presentations by Kirsten Woitek (GeorgeMason University) on “The Imagined Community: How Language Practices
and Beliefs (Re) Construct Language Learner Identity.” She framed students“imagined communities” with Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory (based on Freud).
Ming-Tso Chien, a graduate student at the University of Maine, presented“Autoethnography as Counter-Storytelling from an International TeachingAssistant”, and discussed these assistant positions that are rapidly increasing.
On the lighter side So-Yeon Ahn (City University of Hong Kong) presented“Language Play as a Site for Challenging Beliefs in an English Classroom”
which presented students not only displaying their linguistic knowledge but
also allowing them to create a carnivalesque atmosphere that can temporarilytransform, subvert, and/or disrupt the conventional interactions in schools.
Misato Matsuoka (Teikyo University) had similar positive things to say in her
presentation “Laughter in Medical Interaction” about the benefits of enjoying
ourselves.
Debasmita Roychowdhury (Dona Ana Community College, USA)
presented one of the best and most critically aware presentations at theconference; it was entitled “Critical Media Literacy as Carnival of Multiple
Literacies in the Era of Massive Digital Brainwashing.” Her second slide looked
like this:Multiplicity of communication channels, media, and modalities of representation
require new types of literacies and understanding.
• In the era of pervasive digital technology, we need to develop newliteracies: Information Literacy; Critical Media Literacy; Critical
Digital Media Literacy; Political Literacy• The notion of Carnival (Bakhtin) refers to subverting and undermining
the powerful social conventions creatively in an attempt to attainempowerment and liberation. (copied with permission)
Her call for a variety of new literacies is in line with our “evolving medias”
and their evolving natures confounded not only with fake or false news but with97

Murpheysurveillance on our own privacy. She cited McChesney (2013) who says within
the title of his book: “How capitalism is turning the internet against democracy”.
She also cited Vaidhyanathan’s Antisocial Media; Turkle’s Alone together, andHuesemann & Huesemann’s, Techno-fix: Why technology won't save us or theenvironment. She went on to cite Zuboff (2019), whose title says it all: Age ofSurveillance Capitalism: “We Thought We Were Searching Google, But Google
Was Searching Us”. She succinctly stated her point when she said, “Asymmetryof knowledge has created power imbalance: They know everything about us; weknow almost nothing about them” (Zuboff, 2019).
It was especially nice to see many graduate students displaying criticality intheir dissertations and other research. I was especially shaken by Alex Kasula
who reopened our eyes to the fate of Marshall Islands' inhabitants who are being
told their islands will be uninhabitable in 50 years due to global warming and therising sea polluting their fresh water reserves with sea water, and the continued
U.S. military use of their islands as testing grounds for nuclear and otherweapons. Yet Kasula's research was about creating a critical discourse of hopeamong his university students to think about solutions and alternatives rather
than sinking into despair.
Two other graduate students from the University of Hawaii, Jiaxin Ruan
and Jiamin Ruan, dared to get their Chinese classes to engage with projectbased learning. Their findings showed the crucial value of implementing criticalperspectives in Chinese language education and getting students to explore local
Chinese culture in terms of Chinese restaurants, community centers, and music
and other intangible cultural attributes.
This theme of persistence within criticality seemed to be repeating several
times at this conference. When my presentation came around, I had technicaldifficulties that many people helped me resolve if not solve. Their “trying tohelp” and the good vibrations gave me hope and courage. In the end, I was able
to give one of the best presentations I have ever given, which was a lovely mixof improvisation, interesting questions, and a deeper understanding of my topic,social testing (Murphey, 2019).
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succeed, it seems to give us courage and hope. It is said that hope has threecomponents: goals, pathways thinking, and agency thinking. Agency thinking
is having the confidence that you will succeed, which seems to come fromothers trying to help you (even if they can’t in the end). My point being that thisorganization, ISLS, while primed to be critical, is also an extremely helpful andcollaborative group whose altruism is contagious.
To conclude, if you admire the kind of criticality that is looking to improve
the socio-ecological, political, and pedagogical areas of our lives, ISLS is anexciting group to belong to and I highly recommend their conferences andpublications. They are a small society, have very active with meaningful goals,and love diversity and good conversations. Have a look at their publications
and website for more in depth information. The coffee and refreshments eachmorning, and during the 15-minute breaks between sessions, were amazing
and much appreciated, adding greatly to our positive criticality and interactiveconversations. And the student helpers who guided us around the Open
University were also precious.

Author bio

Tim Murphey has studied and taught in Europe for 15 years and in Asia foranother 30. At present, he teaches at Aoyama University, Kanda University ofInternational Studies, and graduate school at Wayo Women’s University, Nagoya
University of Foreign Studies, and Kanda. He researches positive sociology, student
voice, motivation, and Vygotskian sociocultural theory. He loves teaching, juggling,skiing and finding positive ways to teach and learn.
mitsmail1@gmail.com
Tim has written this conference review to fulfill hisobligation of receiving the CUE SIG Conference
Grant. The grant providing funding which allowed
him to attend the ISLS conference. Thank you,Tim! (Glen Hill, OnCUE Journal chief editor)

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References

Huesemann, M., & Huesemann, J. (2011). Techno-fix: Why technology won't save
us or the environment. Gabriola Island, Canada: New Society Publishers.
Johnson, K., & Murphey, T. (2018). Identifying and identifying with: A criticallook into student interaction with peace, activism, altruism, and love in aJapanese university setting. Readings in Language Studies, 7, 45-61.
McChesney, R. (2013). Digital disconnect: How capitalism is turning the internet
against democracy. New York, NY: The New Press.
Murphey T. (2019). Peaceful social testing in times of increasing
individualization and isolation. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 16,
50-67.
Zuboff, S. (2019, March 1). Interview by A. Goodman [Tape recording]. Age ofSurveillance Capitalism: “We Thought We Were Searching Google, But Google
Was Searching Us.”
Democracy Now! Retrieved from https://www.democracynow.org/2019/3/1/
age_of_surveillance_capitalism_we_thought100