28–29 April, 2011, Tieteiden talo, Helsinki.
Invited keynote speakers:
Dr. Elizabeth Eger, King’s College London
Professor Susan M. Fitzmaurice, University of Sheffield
Studies of prestige comprise a multidisciplinary enterprise with links to research fields like sociolinguistics, network studies, social history, and cultural evolution. In Henrich & Gil-White (2001), prestige is defined as “noncoerced, interindividual, within-group, human status asymmetries”, or as freely conferred deference on an individual who excels in valued domains of activity. Prestige is a salient factor in human societies and networks. It affects our everyday lives, as prestigious groups or individuals serve as valued models e.g. for the choices we make and the attitudes we hold on many levels including lifestyles, consumer habits, affiliations, and language varieties. But how is prestige conferred on individuals or groups; who are the prestigious in different conditions; what sorts of consequences does prestige have in different domains of activity; and how do prestige patterns change in time and how can we study prestige in language and history? Understanding prestige as a multifaceted factor in human behaviour and interpersonal relationships will ultimately help us see prestige patterns as culturally and socially conditioned changing constructs.
Organizers: Minna Palander-Collin, Minna Nevala, and Anni Sairio (Language and Identity research group), the Department of Modern Languages, University of Helsinki.
The seminar is free and open to all. Please register online by April 17th: https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/26611/lomake.html
The language of the seminar is English.
Reference:
Henrich, J. & F. Gil-White. 2001. ‘The evolution of prestige: Freely conferred deference as a mechanism for enhancing the benefits of cultural transmission’. Evolution & Human Behavior 22: 165−196.
Programme:
Thursday 28.4.
10-10.30 Registration
10.30-11 Introduction to the seminar
11-12 Elizabeth Eger: ‘Queen of the Bluestockings’: Elizabeth Montagu, power and prestige
12-13 Lunch break
13-13.30 Anders Ahlqvist: Prestige and language in Finland and Ireland
13.30-14 Alex Snellman: Prestige as status capital: Interconnected power resources and the events of 1808-1809 in Finland
14-14.30 Coffee break
14.30-15 Arja Nurmi & Päivi Pahta: Multilingualism and prestige in women’s eighteenth-century English
15-15.30 Sara Nordlund-Laurent: Sisters in life and letters: Roles and relations in the correspondence of Anna and Helena Westermarck in 1879 and 1899
Friday 29.4.
9-10 Susan M. Fitzmaurice: ‘Varnished vice’: Aristocracy, prestige and reputation in eighteenth-century England
10-10.15 Coffee break
10.15-10.45 Taru Nordlund: Sub-elite writers and elite genres: Lower-class writers and the regimes of literacy in nineteenth-century Finland
10.45-11.15 Anni Sairio: Letters of the ‘polite’ and the ‘learned’: influence of social and linguistic prestige in eighteenth-century English correspondence
11.15-11.45 Maria Vainio-Kurtakko: Aristocracy as a strategy and an ideal: A case study of Albert Edelfelt
11.45-13 Lunch break
13-13.30 Jacques Van Keymeulen: Naming languages: an innocent activity?
13.30-14 Doris Stolberg: Why German? European encounters in the Pacific
14-14.30 Coffee break
14.30-15 Christel Björkstrand: Politeness pinpointing social utopia: An interdisciplinary analysis of Friedrich Schiller’s play Wilhelm Tell
15-15.30 Irma Tapaninen: An author who lost his prestige in 1909
15.30-16 Minna Nevala: How to behave like a gentleman: Seventeeth- and eighteenth-century conduct books in focus
Venue: Kirkkokatu 6