This community-based research project draws on, and contributes to, the fields of linguistic anthropology, linguistics, gender and women’s studies, and identity theory. Our team includes core staff of the Center for Babywearing Studies (CBWS), and researchers and students from the University of British Columbia. Together, we have articulated two main goals: First, we plan to document the in-group language of the babywearing community, and second, to share the language of babywearing with target audiences including babywearing educators. Specifically, the partnership has four main objectives. To: 1) conduct an online, transnational survey with members of the babywearing community, as well as focus group discussions with certified babywearing educators; 2) share the language of babywearing in an inclusive way through an online open-access dictionary; 3) present the language of babywearing to the community through reports and presentations; and 4) disseminate the results of our research at conferences and through an academic journal article.

This research builds on two earlier activities: 1) our co-hosted online research forum on the language of babywearing, and 2) a 2021 social media analysis of the online babywearing community undertaken by one of our undergraduate research assistants, supervised by PI Schreyer. This preliminary research illustrated how parent identity and babywearing are connected, and highlighted the gendered nature of online babywearing identity. CBWS has been involved in the development of this project and will continue to be engaged in every phase of the research. Together, our team’s work will contribute to the community dictionary making methods of linguistic anthropology, advance the discourses relating to gender and identity in care-giving contexts, and assist the CBWS in developing educational materials for their educators and clients.