The Open Letter: Responses and Recommendations
Channel: Who Speaks For Us?
Date: 2022-01-22

Presented at the Linguistic Society of America, January 7, 2022

In 2020, the field of linguistics was shaken by The Open Letter to the LSA regarding Steven Pinker (TOL). TOL argued that Pinker’s public statements are inconsistent with the LSA’s anti-racist values, asking to revoke Pinker’s status as LSA Fellow and to remove him from the LSA’s list of Media Experts. Signed by 600+ linguists, TOL has generated vigorous debate within and outside linguistics. This talk pushes the discussion forward by analyzing the responses to TOL using the tools of our profession––pragmatics and discourse analysis––and further suggesting an approach for examining the power of individuals in the field.

Online appendix available at https://lsa-letter-meta.carrd.co/.