By William Merrix, Florida State University
Hello, everyone! My name is William Merrix, and I am a 3rd-year student at Florida State University, receiving dual degrees in Computer Science and Linguistics. I am the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Political Review at Florida State University, where I oversee the legal and Africana sections. I have been interested in politics and language since beginning my studies at FSU. I view language as the richest medium for conveying thought, identity, and intention. I’m particularly interested in the language use of everyday or marginalized groups in political contexts. Understanding how language shapes thought, identity, and the intentions of politics, both in the United States and around the world, has been a significant motivator on my path to education and achieving my career goals.
In preparation for my research this summer, I spent last summer studying abroad in Paris, France. This experience not only helped me prepare for my work this summer, but also greatly influenced my post-graduation desires and plans. During my senior year, I will apply for a Fulbright Fellowship to teach English in Morocco as well as to master’s degree programs in France, Ireland, and the Netherlands. I then plan to earn a Ph.D. in Linguistics with a dual concentration in Computational and Sociolinguistic Studies. Ultimately, I hope to work in academia as a researcher and teacher.
This summer, I will travel to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to conduct socio-linguistic interviews with students at the Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny (UFHB) and other Ivorian adults. Côte d’Ivoire has suffered political turmoil and human rights violations for most of the 21st century. As a result, Ivorian leaders have used language to evoke social representations of legitimacy in search of national stability, especially in light of the ideology of ivoirité, or “Ivorianness,” that is, “Côte d’Ivoire for Ivorians.” Its current ruling political party, under the leadership of Alassane Ouattara, faces a resentful opposition, due to Ouattara’s rewriting of the Ivorian constitution to run for a previously unconstitutional third term in 2016 and his appointment of members of his own Jula-speaking, largely-Muslim language group in various positions of power. Although he did so in reaction to nearly two decades of anti-Jula discrimination, many Ivorians consider the situation no better than the previous one.
My project asks how competing political forces use standard French, Ivorian French, and an emerging street creole called Nouchi, to describe alternative presents and diverse futures for Cote d’Ivoire in relation to the political origins and loyalties of the speakers. I am paying particular attention to the exercise of linguistic social power resulting in social inequalities, including cultural, political, ethnic, gender, and religious. Through this work, I will better understand how discourse plays a role in the reproduction of social inequalities, power, human rights violations, social domination, and group formation in political practice in Côte d’Ivoire and West Africa.
So far, the work I have done for my project has been about preparing to leave for a two-month-long trip to Cote d’Ivoire…vaccines, visas, academic affiliation…and thinking through the kinds of questions that I would like to ask my interviewees. I am also preparing myself to live in Abidjan and trying to learn Jula, a language widely spoken in Abidjan, in addition to maintaining my French. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to go to Abidjan and learn about global political and human rights discourse through my research. My experience in Cote d’Ivoire will be transformative and enhance my understanding of the world, and I can’t wait!
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