Monk seal language landscapes in Hawai‘i

The Hawaiian monk seal is the most endangered of all pinnipeds (walruses, sea lions, and seals). The threat of extinction has loomed large for these seals, especially as sea-level rise threatens to inundate their primary habitat, but an alliance of conservation actors, from federal agencies to non-profit volunteer groups, are working to bring this species back from the brink in Hawai‘i.

Today, the monk seal population is finally beginning to recover, but as monk seals make a comeback and reclaim busy beaches, new and unpredictable human relationships with monk seals are taking shape in an uncertain time of climate change.

Drawing on data from my ethnographic research on the forms of language and communication emerging within this seal-human contact zone in Hawai‘i, I explore possibilities for a multispecies approach to linguistic landscape research better able to account for the new forms of multispecies communicability emerging along Hawai‘i’s shorelines as both seals and people co-adapt to their rapidly changing, shared environment.

Speaker

Dr. Gavin Lamb, Associate Professor of English, NHH Norwegian School of Economics

Registration

The event is free and open for all. Please sign up here.

Contact:

Pierre du Plessis, AIAS-AUFF Fellow, pierredup@aias.au.dk