By the Throat

Without noticing it, our group identity is revealed not just by our appearance, but also by our throats. Our pronunciation and phonation determine the region we belong to, as they are formed by our mother tongue. In By the Throat, filmmakers Effi & Amir investigate the way our voice forms our identity, thus giving us our own internal checkpoint. They show modern variations of the shibboleth, a language test that determines which group you belong to and nowadays decides whether you can pass a checkpoint in Tel Aviv or be given asylum status, but also determines whether someone is seen as a man or a woman.

Introduction
In her introduction, Assistent Professor Lauren Wagner will contextualize By The Throat by focussing on the scientific field of sociolinguistics. How do we distinguish social groups based on their use of language? And, can you learn to speak a new language? A crash course Arabic phonetics is included!

About the speaker
Lauren Wagner works as an Assistant Professor at the Globalisation, Transnationalism and Development Research Group (UM). She is a post-disciplinary social scientist, with roots in sociology, anthropology, geography and sociolinguistics, and interests in categorization and belonging, migration and diaspora.

InScience International Science Film Festival Nijmegen is one of the biggest science film festivals in Europe and unique in the Netherlands. InScience focusses on the cutting edge of film, science and society. The program consists of science films, debates and an education program for children and youngsters.
The seventh edition takes place from 10 till 14 November in Nijmegen.