In 2020 we gave out 4 LingComm Grants. The 2020 LingComm Grants were $500 (USD) to support a linguistics communication project that brings linguistics to new audiences in engaging ways. The grant also included a one-on-one mentoring meeting with Gretchen and Lauren. The grants were funded by Lingthusiasm, thanks to the kind support of our patrons.

We had over 75 applications from around the world and we’d like to thank all applicants for making the job of deciding extremely difficult! We plan to keep tweaking the structure of the LingComm Grants in future years based on what we’ve learned. If you’re thinking of starting a lingcomm project, or any scicomm project, check out the resources page on the LingComm Grants website.

Now that all four grantees have started posting (ahead of schedule, despite this incredibly stressful year), we’d like to encourage you to check them out! Here are the summaries of each project from the 4 grantees, including links to their projects and social media, so you can get a little more linguistics in your life.  

The Black Language Podcast

Anansa Benbow

I am creating a podcast to engage members of the African diaspora in dialogue surrounding our linguistic practices. The focus of my project is on the English language variations of Black people, specifically in the Americas and the Caribbean. The podcast will be a space to discuss topics in linguistics (politeness, pronouns, discourse markers, etc) as it relates to English language variations of Black people, as well as language discrimination faced by Black people. It is my goal to make issues in linguistics more accessible to my community. To my knowledge, there aren’t projects that expose Black people outside of academia to topics in linguistics. Additionally, while there are a handful of linguistics podcasts, many designate a few episodes to talking about Black English and other minoritized language variations, whereas, I plan to focus solely on English language varieties of Black people. See my 2019 TEDx talk Grammar Skool. Twitter: @AnansaBenbow

Follow The Black Language Podcast on various podcast platforms and @blacklangpod on Twitter and on Instagram.   

Nonbinary Linguistics youtube channel 

Nina Lorence-Ganong

I am interested in the intersection between linguistics and nonbinary gender identity. Nonbinary people are generally an understudied population, and we are underrepresented in linguistic research. I want to highlight the research done by, about, and for nonbinary people. This project helps people understand what it means to be nonbinary, and to develop an interest in linguistics. I want to make a series of videos that explore different topics in this area. So far, I made a video about nonbinary gender construction through voice. I use the study as an example to introduce and illustrate concepts, such as the framework of sociolinguistics. 

Follow Trundling Wombat on youtube. 

Jazicharnica (Јазичарница) blog

Nina Tunteva and Viktorija Blazheska

Our idea is to start a blog in Macedonian that will serve as an accessible introduction to linguistics. As young linguists from Macedonia, we are well aware that there are very few resources on linguistics in our native language, and even less on pop linguistics. We will attract readers by presenting engaging content related to language in general and the Macedonian language in particular. The Macedonian language community has never had a pop linguistics project that mediates between linguists and the general public. Language minorities and multilingualism in the country are frequently misrepresented. Our blog will inform speakers of all languages in the country that there’s no right or wrong when they’re speaking their mother tongue and empower them to think about language outside of the deeply entrenched standardist and prescriptivist limits. 

Check out the blog at Jazicharnica.com and follow them on social media Tumblr: @jazicharnica Twitter: @jazicharnica Facebook: jazicharnica Instagram: jazicharnica

War of Words podcast

Juana de los Santos, Angela Makeviciuz, Antonella Moschetti & Néstor Bermúdez

We propose the production and publication of the second season of War of Words, a Spanish linguistics podcast whose content will be about linguistic topics and related sciences which are connected with their construction for scientific knowledge. In the first season we have shown a general outlook of the discipline through interviews to students and professors of this career. But in this second season we feel the necessity of bringing the theoretical concepts back down to earth and show their applications, not only for a specialized audience but also for linguistic students and other professionals. 

Follow War of Words on various podcast platforms and on Facebook and Instagram.

Commendation

We had so many great applications that we’d also like to commend the following two projects and their proposers for their innovation and commitment to reaching new audiences:

Code-switching, language freedom realized (Photobook by Sarah F. Phillips)
All Talk with Accentricity (Workshop by Sadie Ryan)