November 19, 2009
Installation of Prof. Janet Ainsworth as the John D. Eshelman Professor
4:30 p.m.
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6:30 p.m.
Location: Room C5
Professor Janet Ainsworth
Professor Ainsworth presents "English Only' Policies in the Workplace: Linguistic Ideology in Action" as part of the Influential Voices Lecture Series.
Reception to follow in the Second Floor Gallery
English Only' Policies in the Workplace: Linguistic Ideology in Action
Professor Ainsworth will critique the law's response to "English Only" rules by employers, suggesting that the law not only fails to take account of current cognitive research on multilingualism but also fails to appreciate choice of language as a rich resource for encoding meaning and identity.
Janet Ainsworth received her law degree from Harvard Law School and a master's degree from Yale University. Before joining the faculty in 1988, she practiced law at the Seattle Public Defender Association. She has taught a wide variety of courses, including torts, criminal procedure, children and the law, and a seminar in law, society, and social change. Her research interests range across a variety of fields, including criminal law and procedure, juvenile justice, comparative legal theory, imperial Chinese law, language and law, feminist legal theory, and law and semiotics. Her interdisciplinary scholarly works have been published in such law reviews as the Yale Law Journal, the Cornell Law Review, the Hastings Law Journal, The North Carolina Law Review, the Boston College Law Review, and the Washington University Law Quarterly, as well as in peer reviewed social science journals including Forensic Linguistics; the International Journal of Speech, Language and Law; Contemporary Sociology; the Texas Linguistic Forum; and Register and Context. She has been invited to present papers at law conferences and linguistics conferences both nationally and abroad, and is the author of more than a dozen invited book chapters. Currently she serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Law and Semiotics and Oxford University Press' series, Law and Language.
Introduction by Professor Lawrence Solan
Lawrence Solan, the Don Forchelli Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, holds both a law degree and a Ph.D. in linguistics, and is currently director of the Center for the Study of Law, Language, and Cognition as well as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. His scholarly works are largely devoted to exploring interdisciplinary issues related to law, language and psychology, especially in the areas of statutory and contractual interpretation, the attribution of liability and blame, and linguistic evidence. The author of numerous highly regarded books, articles, and book chapters, Solan's most recent work, Under the Law: Statutes and their Interpretation, will be published by the University of Chicago Press in 2010.
About Professor John D. Eshelman
John D. Eshelman is a professor of economics in Seattle University's Albers School of Business and Economics. He returned to the faculty in July 2008, after serving the university in several leadership roles for 30 years. He was provost from 1989-2004 as well as 2006-2008. In addition, he served as executive vice president (chief operating officer), interim vice president for finance and business, acting president, and dean of the Albers School of Business and Economics.
He is a commissioner for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and has been involved in accreditation with the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business and the Section on Legal Education of the American Bar Association. He is a past president of the Western Association of Collegiate Schools of Business, and served on national committees of the AACSB.