Linguistics Speaker Series

The Linguistics Speaker Series

of the

Department of English, Linguistics, and Speech

presents:

Walt Wolfram

North Carolina State University

"The Public Life Of Language Differences"

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

7:30 p.m.

Great Hall

Woodard Campus Center

Reception to follow

Pioneering sociolinguist Walt Wolfram, the William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of English at North Carolina State University at Raleigh, directs the North Carolina Language and Life Project.  The project researches and documents the rich variety of language and culture in that state, one of the most linguistically diverse in the U.S. A reception will follow.

Dr. Wolfram has produced numerous documentary films and served as linguistic adviser for Sesame Street.  He has authored or co-authored more than 250 articles and 20 books including Dialects in Schools and Communities, American English: Dialects and Variation; American Voices: How Dialects Differ from Coast to Coast; The Development of African American English; Fine in the World: Lumbee Language in Time and Place; and Hoi Toide on the Outer Banks: The Story of the Ocracoke Brogue.

This event is sponsored by the Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication, with the support of the Departments of Education, Geography, Historical Preservation, Modern Foreign Languages, Psychology, and Sociology/Anthropology, and the Campus Academic Resources Committee.

For information, please contact Dr. Judith Parker, Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication, at 540-654-1538 or jparker@umw.edu.

 

 

 

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Past Speakers in this Series:

"Linguistic Profiling in the African Diaspora: Voice Discrimination in the U.S. and South Africa"

A talk by Dr. John Baugh, Washington University in St. Louis

Date and Time: Tuesday, November 13, 2007, 7:00 p.m.

Location: Great Hall, UMW Fredericksburg campus

Reception and book-signing to follow.

The Linguistics Speaker Series will host on November 13th Dr. John Baugh, Ph.D., a well-known African-American linguist and education expert, who holds the Margaret Bush Wilson professorship in Arts & Sciences at the University of Washington, Saint Louis. Prof. Baugh is also the director of African and African American Studies and professor of Anthropology, Education, English, and Psychology.

Dr. Baugh's recent work has been on the identification of the race of speakers from characteristics of their voices during telephone conversations, a process he termed "linguistic profiling." The implications of his research for housing discrimination led to his receiving a Pioneer of Fair Housing award in 2004 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Prof. Baugh is the author of Black Street Speech: Its History, Structure and Survival; Out of the Mouths of Slaves: African American Language and Educational Malpractice; Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic Pride and Racial Prejudice; and the co-author of Talkin Black Talk: Language, Education, and Social Change.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

This event is sponsored by the Department of English, Linguistics, and Speech, with the support of the Departments of Education, Geography, Sociology/Anthropology, and Psychology. For information, please contact Dr. Paul Fallon, Department of English, Linguistics, and Speech at 654-1543 or pfallon@umw.edu.

For more on Dr. Baugh's research, you can click here.

 

2007: Dr. Frank Abate, Dictionary Editor, Journalist, Author
"My Life (such as it is, so far) in Lexicography" (April 12, 2007)

Frank Abate is an independent lexicographer, editor, writer, and photographer based in the Cincinnati area. He has edited more than 50 dictionaries and other reference works, and has been published and interviewed in newspapers, journals, and other media. His editorial work includes the New Oxford American Dictionary (principal editor), the Oxford American Dictionary and Language Guide (editor in chief), the Omni Gazetteer of the United States of America (compiler), and Connecticut Trivia (author).

2006: Dr. William J. Frawley, President of the University of Mary Washington and Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
"What are Dictionaries and WHY are they Important?" (Nov. 13, 2006)

 

2005: Dr. Philip Lieberman, Fred M. Seed Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences and Professor of Anthropology at Brown University
"FOXP2: A Genetic Key to Language" (Nov. 14, 2005).

 

2004: Dr. Roger Shuy, Distinguished Research Professor of Linguistics, Emeritus, Georgetown University
"The Growth of Forensic Linguistics in the 21st Century" (Oct. 18, 2004)

2003: Dr. Marc Okrand, Director for Live Captioning at the National Captioning Institute and creator of Klingon
"Language and Science Fiction: The Case of Klingon" (Nov. 18, 2003)

2002: Dr. Deborah Tannen, University Professor, Georgetown University
"Women's and Men's Conversations as Cross-Cultural Communication" (Nov. 2002)