Stories from the Gay Games Hong Kong: Rethinking People/Place through Collaborative Linguistic Landscape Research

Ben Rowlett - Hong Kong Baptist University (https://eng.hkbu.edu.hk/academic-staff/dr-benedict-rowlett/)

THIS IS AN IN-PERSON ONLY EVENT.

Abstract

This talk will report on how participatory fieldwork methods, in this case a research/pedagogical collaboration between undergraduate students and their instructor, allowed for a diverse and wide-ranging exploration of the linguistic landscape (LL) of the 2023 Gay Games Hong Kong. With the understanding that this LGBTQ+ event, as it travels across cultural and socio-political borders, would be shaped by diverse semiotic actions in its LL, this present study aimed to investigate those actions from the perspectives of the research team who interacted with the LL by participating as on-site volunteers during the event. As such, these collaborative methods were aimed at capturing and reflecting on the emergence of particular discursive and spatial formations via the researchers’ interactions with people and place. These formations are therefore examined through the experiential lens of this group of Hong Kong citizens (the students), whose stories from the games appear as integral to certain  understandings of the event’s potential reach and impacts.  

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Biography

Benedict J. L. Rowlett is an Assistant Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University with research interests in queer (applied) linguistics and ethnographic methods. His recent work has focused on the intersections between language, identity, sexualities, and social action in Asian contexts, including discourse analytical research on Asian Pride events.

 

THIS IS AN IN-PERSON ONLY EVENT.