Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecture by William Labov

A press release: The American Council of Learned Societies (of which DSNA is a member) pleased to announce the publication of the 2009 Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecture by William Labov. Entitled “A Life of Learning: Six People I Have Learned From,” the lecture is distinctive in both form and content.

Dr. Labov, professor of linguistics and director of the Linguistics Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, presents the voices and stories of six Americans who have enriched and transformed the English language. The lecture is presented in text with audio highlights at http://www.acls.org/publications/audio/labov/default.aspx?id=4462. An audio file of the complete lecture is also available.

As the 2009 Haskins Prize lecturer, Professor Labov joins a distinguished list of scholars (see http://www.acls.org/publications/haskins). Established in 1982 by former ACLS President John William Ward, the series honors the ACLS tradition of commitment to scholarship and teaching of the highest quality. The lecture is delivered at the ACLS Annual Meeting and subsequently published in the ACLS Occasional Paper series.

In her introduction at the lecture, ACLS President Pauline Yu said, “Professor Labov’s work exemplifies the qualities often found in the most enduring achievement of all scholarship: it is at once complex and rigorous, but also deeply consequential.” His research on nonstandard vernacular, most notably that of African-American children, counters the misguided theory that (in his words) “every natural utterance of the child [is] evidence of his mental inferiority and that the speech of working class people is merely a form of emotional expression, incapable or relating logical thought."

Professor Labov began his university studies in linguistics with “the belief that working people have a lot to say.” In his lecture he introduces us to six people he has, as he puts it, “met in the course of this work.” Though others might view them as research subjects, to Labov these individuals are teachers; their narratives and words live with him. It is our pleasure to bring their voices to a wider audience.

ACLS Fellowships for 2009-2010

The American Council of Learned Societies 2009-10 fellowship competitions are now open. You will find the most updated and comprehensive information on all ACLS programs available www.acls.org/programs/comps. As in previous years, the majority of competition deadlines are in the early fall.

During the 2008-09 cycle, ACLS awarded over $10.2 million to 336 scholars based in the US and abroad working in the humanities and related social sciences. The new fellows, along with abstracts of their proposals, are posted on the ACLS website at: www.acls.org/fellows/new.

ACLS Humanities E-Book Subscriptions

ACLS Humanities E-Book (HEB) is pleased to make individual subscriptions available through standing membership in the Dictionary Society of North America as an added benefit of your membership. Individual subscriptions are USD $35.00 for a twelve-month, renewable, subscription. $15 of your subscription will come back directly to the Dictionary Society of North America and the balance will help sustain HEB as a resource for the entire scholarly community.

The link below will bring you directly to the online purchase module at ACLS Humanities E-Book. You will need to choose the Dictionary Society of North America from the pull-down menu and provide your membership number (in lieu of which, as DSNA does not have membership numbers, use your cell phone number. It will function as a unique identifier and will not be used or accessed in any way).

To initiate a subscription, please visit: https://www.humanitiesebook.org/subscription_purchase.html

Information and Terms: The subscription offers unlimited access to its collection of cross-searchable, full-text titles across the humanities and related social sciences (https://www.humanitiesebook.org/titlelist.html). Titles have been selected and peer reviewed by ACLS constituent learned societies for their continued value in teaching and researching, and approximately 500 are being added each year. The collection includes both in- and out-of-print titles ranging from the 1880s to the current year. Titles link to publishers’ websites and to online reviews in JSTOR, Project MUSE, and other sites. Individual subscriptions are ideal for those whose school might not yet have an institutional subscription to HEB or for individual members of a learned society who might not be affiliated with a subscribing institution.

For inquiries, email: subscriptions@hebook.org

ACLS Humanities E-Book Subscriptions

As a constituent society of the American Council of Learned Societies, DSNA offers its members individual subscriptions to the ACLS Humanities E-Book collection for just $35 for a 12-month subscription. By early 2010 HEB will be offering unlimited access to nearly 3,000 full-text, cross-searchable titles across the humanities and social sciences, from the 1880s through the present. Subscriptions are available via the ACLS Humanities E-Book website - http://www.humanitiesebook.org/. DSNA receives $15 each time an individual subscriber indicates their affiliation. When asked for your DSNA membership number, use a telephone number (it’s just for record-keeping; they won’t be calling you).