Melissa Boiko @melissaboiko@scholar.social

organizing accounts:

this alt = linguistics, conlangs, academic life.

selfies, comments on books+comic books, transgender issues, politics, miscellanea = @elilla .

trying to keep this account’s public timeline more on-topic as per instance rules \o/

#introduction hallöchen! I’m a Brazilian trans woman living in Germany working on Japanese dialectal fieldwork (long story). Interests include fantasy fiction, imaginary languages, free software, comic books, intersectional veganism, cute cuddly things, and supporting anticapitalist revolutions to bring down the whole rotten edifice

#introductions #germany #bochum #nrw #linguistics #transgender #vegan

thinking that my addiction to audiobooks could be considered a form of oral literature, but it is a derivative one—the words, the language being first frozen in letters before the performer reads, so that these words will stubbornly remain attached to the needs of paper rather than the strengths of storytelling, no matter how good the storyteller may be.

thinking what it would look like if we had a bonafide oral tradition, stories _made for_ voice and performed as oral literature podcasts

Brazilian trilingual indigenous political rap <3

https://youtu.be/3NmY2F61GY8

(covid-19 themes, violence)

#brazil #tupi #jê

maybe its time to write this thesis thing

it’s interesting how books on writing or research advice, self-help etc. as well as career counselling appear to be so blind to the actual hard part of academic life – money, job market, immigration problems, exploitation of unpaid work, institutionalised disregard for personal life, performative sacrifice, widespread mental health crisis etc.

yes I can write 15 minutes a day and follow my passion. now what’s the motivational advice on deportation and encroaching fascism?

my therapist: yes it’s v reasonable to feel that way, job insecurity and temporary contracts are what end up driving a lot of single mothers out of academia

me:

Diálogo de Bonecas (1992), primeiro manual sobre o argot bajubá escrito pelas próprias travestis.

https://issuu.com/jovannacardoso/docs/cartilha_di_logo_de_bonecas

#travesti #transhistory #linguistics #sociolinguistics

not a fan of the forced specialisation in academia tbh

the most fun period I had as a scholar was the (2nd) undergrad, where in the course of a single semester I would be studying all of Greek tragedies, Romance linguistic history, Greimasian semiotics, typographic design and Old Tupi. those were the days.

imagine if there were a Latex, but good

there's been quite a bit of research on the cognitive/health benefits of multilingualism, but I think the framing tends to be backwards. multilingualism isn't a bonus, but the default (historically, anthropologically, biologically). our species developed multilingual, and still is everywhere not too damaged by colonial steamrollers. monolingualism is a v recent development, an emergent artifact of a capitalist+racist society.

so we should be talking about the cognitive damage of monolingualism.

is it too late to go back to tech

just had a talk with a counsellor about academic opportunities in my field (or the lack thereof) and what does it take to continue my career after the phd.

excuse me while I lie down overwhelmed for a while.