A rhetorical-political framework for multilingual and translingual scholarship

Abstract

ABSTRACT Societies around the world are multilingual, but scholarship is increasingly monolingual. Dominant global languages, which serve as link languages for scholars who share them, can restrict access to and application of knowledge in life and society for the majority of the world population. This article seeks to answer how scholars might be able to advance multilingual and translingual scholarship, making knowledge more accessible. We use the case of Nepal to account for a typical global south languaging condition, which helps us offer useful perspectives and practical solutions toward the above goals. To do so, we develop a rhetorical-political framework that foregrounds language agency and choice of scholars: while rhetorical analysis helps to identify factors fostering (or undermining) rhetors’ agency in language choice and use, political assessment helps to account for power dynamics affecting the rhetorical agency and choice. We finally highlight how scholarship that uses such a framework could help transcend monolingual worldviews and mobilize all languages toward greater linguistic and epistemic justice. We use two languages we are fluent in, English and Nepali, to illustrate and practice what we propose and discuss, often going beyond direct translation to engage the multilingual and translingual audiences that we envision.