The eighth Sandrizona collaborative conference organized by linguistic anthropology graduate students at both the University of Arizona and the University of California, San Diego was convened at the UA on the weekend of February 14 and 15, 2015. Sandrizona is an event intended to provide students with the opportunity to receive productive and thorough feedback on their work while developing their professional networks and driving innovations in the field of linguistic anthropology. Founded by current SoA alumnae Ashley Stinnett and Maisa Taha (both Ph.D. Arizona, 2014), along with students from UCSD, this year’s conference was headed by Mary-Caitlyn Valentinsson, Ph.D. student in the joint Anthropology and Linguistics Program. University of Arizona students from the School of Anthropology, the Linguistics Department, and the interdisciplinary Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Program participated in this conference along with their peers from the UCSD Anthropology Department. Additionally, this year for the first time students from the University of California Los Angeles were invited, and three students made the journey to present their work. One undergraduate student, UA Linguistics major Judith Menzl, took advantage of the opportunity for undergraduate student participation by presenting a paper on “The Construction of Identity through Linguistic Injury.”

This year’s highly successful conference provoked lively discussion after each presentation. The keynote address was delivered by Professor Emeritus Dr. Ana Celia Zentella of UCSD’s Ethnic Studies Department. Students and faculty from multiple departments filled the room Saturday afternoon to hear her dynamic presentation, “Occupying Language: Combating Linguistic Inequality with Anthropological Linguistics,” and learn more about the potential for activism based on anthropological understanding in the field of linguistic human rights. Conference attendees had very positive comments for the organizers throughout the event. One of the students from UCLA prefaced her presentation with an expression of gratitude for the opportunity to participate in the sharing of work in a friendly, relaxed environment that allows feedback on the thinking-through of theoretical implications before projects are submitted for review as “final” works. The overall experience has left the participants and attendees with a sense of appreciation that this student-founded collaborative conference has become a steadfast tradition, and looking forward to next year’s conference in San Diego.