Talks in Linguistics: Dr. Lillian Gorman – “Zones of Encuentro: Language and Identities in Northern New Mexico”
Talks in Linguistics
February 21, 2025
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
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Download iCal FileWorking at the intersection of Latina/o/x cultural studies, sociocultural linguistics, and Chicana feminist studies, Lillian Gorman’s Zones of Encuentro takes an in-depth look at the cultural and linguistic interactions between two distinct Latina/o/x communities in the region:
● Nuevomexicanos, Hispanic people who trace their presence in the region to colonial times and whose families have historically spoken Traditional New Mexican Spanish;
● First-generation Mexican immigrants, who tend to speak Mexican Spanish.
Gorman examines the everyday lived language experiences and ethnolinguistic identities of Mexicanos and Nuevomexicanos together, specifically through the case of mixed Mexicano-Nuevomexicano families.
Through an interdisciplinary critical reading of ethnographic data, pláticas (informal conversations that gather family and community knowledge), interviews, articles, and historical memoirs, Gorman analyzes language ideologies, identity formations, and language practices by exploring complex spaces of encounter within Mexicano-Nuevomexicano families. Zones of Encuentro complicates homogeneous notions of language and identity and contemplates what a shared cultural and linguistic homeplace looks like for Mexicanos and Nuevomexicanos in northern New Mexico.
Dr. Lillian Gorman, a proud Chicana and Nuevomexicana from Albuquerque, New Mexico, is an Associate Professor of Spanish Sociolinguistics and U.S. Latina/o/x Cultural Studies and the Director of the Spanish as a Heritage Language Program in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She graduated with her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Hispanic Studies with a concentration in Latina/o cultural studies. She actively promotes recruitment and retention of Latinas/os/xs in higher education and has worked with local and national Latino higher education organizations such as the USDA Hispanic Serving Institutions Office, HACU, and the Tucson Hispanic Leadership Institute.
Date posted
Feb 6, 2025
Date updated
Feb 17, 2025