The LAGB Linguistics and Racial Justice Committee

Recent years have seen an increased awareness of the ways in which a range of academic disciplines and structures within which we operate contribute to and perpetuate inequalities. This includes higher educational institutions more broadly, as well as teaching practices, funding structures and publishing models. The Linguistics and Racial Committee was founded in 2020. The aim of the committee is to identify ways in which the LAGB, and linguistics more broadly, can work to highlight and address inequalities. The Committee was involved in drafting the LAGB Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Statement (below).

LAGB Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Statement

The LAGB is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, both within the Association and within the field of linguistics more broadly. We are aware of ongoing structural barriers to equality and to access and are committed to addressing these through our work. These barriers include but are not limited to inequality and marginalisation relating to the "protected characteristics" under UK legislation, namely age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

As a professional association for linguistics in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, we acknowledge that a wide spectrum of inequalities exist in our field, as well as in Higher Education institutions where many of us are based. We commit to highlighting inequalities and to carry out work that is part of the broader process of reform to reduce these and to promote equality of opportunity between people with diverse characteristics and from different groups.

• The LAGB has formed a Linguistics and Racial Committee, instituted in 2020, to ensure that issues of racial equality and social justice are a core part of our work;
• Racial equality and social justice is a standing item on our Committee Meeting agenda;
• Our Annual meetings will be organised taking into consideration issues of access and inclusion, as well as broader issues of equality and diversity (see also our Code of Conduct);
• We actively support student participation in the LAGB via the work of the Student Committee;
• We actively support student and unwaged members via a number of bursary schemes and prizes.

We welcome input from any of our members on what further actions we could take and how we can honour our EDI commitments. Please contact the LAGB committee if you have ideas or would like to be involved in this work (<committee@lagb.org.uk>).