| William (Bill) Leap | |
| Known For: | Lavender Languages and Linguistics |
| Alma Mater: | Florida State UniversitySouthern Methodist University |
| Titles: | Professor Emeritus |
| Awards: | Ruth Benedict Prize (monograph 1996; edited volume 2004, 2009)[1] Association for Queer Anthropology Distinguished Achievement Award (2023) |
| Workplaces: | American University, Florida Atlantic University |
William Leap is an emeritus professor of anthropology at American University (Washington, DC) and an affiliate professor in the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program at Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, FL). He works in the overlapping fields of language and sexuality studies and queer linguistics, and queer historical linguistics.
William Leap earned his bachelor's degree from Florida State University in 1967[2] and his Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University[3] in 1970. His dissertation advisor was George Trager.[4]
Leap has been openly gay since he began teaching at American University in Washington, D.C. in 1970.[2] Leap is a leading academic in Lavender linguistics and has been a recipient of the American Anthropological Association Ruth Benedict Award for publishing in Gay and Lesbian anthropology in 1996, 2003, and 2009. He founded the annual Lavender Languages & Linguistics conference in 1993 to coincide with the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.[5] The conference continues to meet annually, and provides a focal point for international discussion of lgbtq-related language issues worldwide. The Lavender Language Institute, a summer program that Leap founded at Florida Atlantic University in 2017, offers training in queer linguistics to undergraduates, grad students, and others interested in language and sexuality studies.
In 2012, Leap launched The Journal of Language and Sexuality with Heiko Motschenbacher.[6] He has been a member of the American Anthropological Association's AIDS task force and co-chaired the AAA's Commission on Gay, Lesbian Bisexual, Trans and Queer Issues in Anthropology (1993-1998). He has done research among Native Americans of the Southwest U.S., South Africans, and Gay men in Washington, DC. He was one of the first researchers to study American Indian varieties of English (including American Indian Pidgin English) in the same way that others had studied Black English,[7] and he has been prominent in Indian language revitalization projects.[8] In November 2023, Leap was recognized by the Association for Queer Anthropology with its Distinguished Achievement Award.
Lavender Languages and Linguistics conference is an international conference for LGBT linguistics and other related queer language research and discourse studies. The conference was founded in 1993 by Leap to coincide with the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.[9] At the time, research on these topics was considered marginal within linguistics, and the conference was a key place for researchers to come together to discuss issues in the field.[10] [11] By the 20th conference, there were over 80 presentations and 150 attendees. The conference was host yearly at American University in Washington, DC until 2017 when the conference began to move each year.[12] It provides a place for emerging queer linguistics scholarship, and it is the conference is the longest continually running LGBT studies conference in the US.[13]
A meta-synthesis of conference abstracts by Paul Baker and published in Milani's chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society found early work presented at the conference focused on the existence of "gay language" such as Polari and "lesbian language". In line with the trajectory of the field, more recent work has focused on how various linguistic features index different identities.
The Journal of Language and Sexuality (though not officially linked to LavLang) is closely affiliated with the conference.[14] It was established venue to publish queer linguistics research.
| Number | Year | Date | Host University | City | Country | Website | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 1993 | April | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | |||
| 2nd | 1994 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | ||||
| 3rd | 1995 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | ||||
| 4th | 1996 | September | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Keynote speakers: Ellen Lewin, Charles Nero, Deborah Tannen, Riki Ann Wilchins | ||
| 5th | 1997 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | ||||
| 6th | 1998 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | ||||
| 7th | 1999 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | ||||
| 8th | 2000 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | ||||
| 9th | 2002 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | |||
| 11th | 2003 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | ||||
| 12th | 2004 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | ||||
| 13th | 2005 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | ||||
| 14th | 2006 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | ||||
| 15th | 2008 | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | ||||
| 16th | 2009 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Plenaries: Aren Aizura and Mary Weismantel | ||
| 17th | 2010 | April | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Plenaries/Special Presentations:Gibran Guido, Ellen Lewin, Andrew Tucker | ||
| 18th | 2011 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Plenaries:Scott Kiesling, Carlos Decena, Sharif Mowlabocus | ||
| 19th | 2012 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Special Events:
| ||
| 20th | 2013 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Special Events:
| ||
| 21st | 2014 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Special Events:
| ||
| 22nd | 2015 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | Plenary: Rusty Barrett | ||
| 23nd | 2016 | February | American University | Washington, D.C. | United States | |||
| 24th | 2017 | April | University of Nottingham | Nottingham | United Kingdom | [1] | Keynote speakers: Dr Helen Sauntson, York St John University (UK) and Professor Paul Baker, Lancaster University (UK). | |
| 25th | 2018 | April | Rhode Island College | Providence, Rhode Island | United States | [2] | Keynote speakers: Mie Hiramoto (National University of Singapore) Margot Weiss (Wesleyan University) and Lal Zimman (University of California, Santa Barbara). | |
| 26th | 2019 | May | University of Gothenburg | Gothenburg | Sweden | [3] | Keynote Speakers: Erika Alm, University of Gothenburg, SwedenMons Bissenbakker, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Rodrigo Borba, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Holly Cashman, University of New Hampshire, USA, Thabo Msibi, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa | |
| 27th | 2021 | May | California Institute of Integral Studies | San Francisco | United States | [4] | Keynote speakers: Jack Halberstam, Columbia University and Elizabeth Freeman, University of California at DavisOriginally planned to be hosted in 2020 in San Francisco at California Institute of Integral Studies, the conference was postpoponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually moved to an online format in 2021. | |
| 28th | 2022 | May | University of Catania | Catania | Italy | [5] | Keynote speakers: J Calder, Adriana Di Stefano, Busi Makoni, Pietro Maturi, Tommaso M. Milani, Eva Nossem |
In 2017 the Lavender Languages Conference expanded to a Summer Institute, a summer program that Leap founded Florida Atlantic University. The institute offers 10 days of class discussion, research opportunities and informal conversations exploring topics of current interest in language and sexuality studies, queer linguistics, and various lavender language themes.[15] The program focuses on training undergraduates, grad students, and others interested in language and sexuality studies.
| Number | Year | Date | Host University | City | State | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2018 | June | Florida Atlantic University | Boca Raton | Florida | ||
| 2nd | 2019 | June | Florida Atlantic University | Boca Raton | Florida | ||
| 3rd | 2021 | June | Florida Atlantic University | Virtual | Originally planned to be hosted in 2020 in person at Florida Atlantic University the conference was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually moved to an online format in 2021. | ||
| 4th | 2022 | June | Florida Atlantic University | Virtual |