Welcome to the CUNY Language Documentation and Advocacy Group

Constitution

Mission: The CUNY Language Documentation and Advocacy Group is an inter-disciplinary forum at the CUNY Graduate Center for research, discussion, and networking related to the preservation, documentation, and advocacy of the world’s languages. The group is particularly interested in working with underrepresented and especially endangered languages.  The group invites students and faculty from all departments to share current scholarship, interests, ideas, and ideas about the world’s minority languages. Our primary purpose is to foster an intellectual and social community of scholars that encourages interaction across disciplines between students and faculty.

Events: In pursuit of the stated mission, the organization will sponsor and/or participate in a variety of activities, including but not limited to regular meetings, discussion sessions, and special academic, cultural, and social events such as workshops, conferences, talks, film showings, performances, meetings with speakers of different languages, among others.

Funding: Our events are always free of charge, and our only regular means of support are DSC funds.  It is the responsibility of the co-chairs to seek any additional funding.

Membership: Membership is open to all Graduate Center students, and we welcome the participation of all CUNY students and faculty as well as those from other institutions.

Governance: Only students matriculated at the Graduate Center will hold voting membership. Quorum consists of a simple majority. Non-voting membership is open to non-matriculated Graduate Center students as well as to students and faculty from other academic institutions.  Every academic year, elections are held by nomination or self-nomination followed by a secret ballot.  Elections are decided by majority, where the candidate(s) having the largest number of votes win.  There are two co-chairs. The co-chairs share the responsibilities of scheduling and running monthly meetings, organizing events, selecting papers, and applying for funding.