Angela Reyes

The question of “nature” has been of broad, enduring interest in anthropology. Attention to nature has only intensified as anthropology increasingly expands outside of the human, be it forests (Kohn 2013), mushrooms (Tsing 2015), animals (Keane 2024), or chatbots (Handman 2023). However, linguistic anthropology has yet to consolidate: 1) past and future genealogies of linguistic anthropological approaches to nature; and 2) the semiotic constitution of nature through external and internal oppositions. Interrogating the ideological construction of nature through a linguistic anthropological approach, this workshop aims to address these two topics as it clarifies how nature is configured as an object toward which value, action, or politics is formulated in matters of global urgency. Bringing together scholars grappling with these issues, we seek to build a linguistic anthropology of nature through focused discussion of case studies ranging from dogs, AI, and mold, to race, sexuality, and class. During two days of in-person meetings at Oberlin College, participants will workshop pre-circulated papers and engage in hands-on field trips with local faculty partners outside of anthropology in order to solidify a perspective informed by interdisciplinarity. After the workshop, participants will revise their papers for a pathbreaking volume on the linguistic anthropology of nature. Co-organizers: Angela Reyes and Erika Hoffmann-Dilloway.