Towards an engaged linguistics: Nonbinary pronouns as a site of advocacy in research and teaching

Konnelly, Lex; Bjorkman, Bronwyn M.; Airton, Lee

doi:10.1075/jls.21024.kon

Article published In: Nonbinary pronouns as a site of advocacy in research and teaching
Edited by Lex Konnelly, Bronwyn M. Bjorkman and Lee Airton
[Journal of Language and Sexuality 11:2] 2022
► pp. 133–140

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Towards an engaged linguistics

Nonbinary pronouns as a site of advocacy in research and teaching

Lex Konnelly | University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Bronwyn M. Bjorkman | Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

Lee Airton | Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

Published online: 4 August 2022

https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.21024.kon

Abstract

The papers in this special issue address themes from They, Hirself, Em, and YOU 2019 (THEY 2019), a conference that brought together researchers working on topics relating to nonbinary gender in language, particularly in pronouns. The papers collected in this special issue provide an overview of the current state of research and practice on nonbinary pronouns as they are currently used in English, as well as connecting the current practices in English to nonbinary pronouns in other languages. There are two sections. In the first section are five traditional academic articles on non-binary language and pronouns; the second section features three short technical articles that raise practical and/or pedagogical issues related to non-binary pronouns from a scholarly perspective. Authors in this volume investigate these topics not only for the advancement of linguistic scholarship, but also to make that scholarship visible to other fields and for broader advocacy.

Keywords: linguistics, pronouns, gender, nonbinary, advocacy, pedagogy

Article outline

1.Introduction
2.Relevance of linguistic scholarship
3.Inclusivity and accessibility of scholarship
4.Outline of the volume
References

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Steriopolo, Olga & Christin Schütze

2025. Referential means in German: an experimental study comparing feminine epicene nouns with masculine generic nouns. Linguistics

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2024. Feminism, Corpus-assisted Research and Language Inclusivity,

Jones, Lucy

2023. Language, gender and sexuality in 2022. Gender and Language 17:2 ► pp. 1 ff.

Knisely, Kris Aric

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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.