Talking Place, Speaking Race: African Americans, Their Englishes, and Local Identity

Sociolinguists, long concerned with the connections between language and localness, have shown that the ways in which speakers use features of ethnoracially or locally marked varieties are highly salient in their construction of identities of place. In the urban U.S., place identity is enmeshed with identities of class and identities of race: to be from a place is to embody its racial makeup and class delineations just as much as its physical locale.  
 
This present study combines quantitative analysis and discourse analysis to analyze the speech of middle- and upper-class African American residents of a rapidly-gentrifying neighborhood in Washington, D.C. The data show that drawing upon an ethnolinguistic repertoire (Benor 2010) which combines features of African American English style as well as features of prestige white varieties of English allows speakers to reinforce racial identities which align them with the neighborhood's rich African American identity even while their class identity might better align them with the outsiders. Ultimately, I argue that the linguistic expression of class and place identity is not an add-on to the enactment of racial identities, but that language is in fact the primary site wherein these intersecting identities are negotiated.
Date:
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Location:
WTY Library 2-34a (Active Learning Classroom)

Record Number of Students on UK Dean's List

By Lori Minter

A record number of students made the University of Kentucky Dean's List for the fall 2016 semester. The 7,408 students were recognized for their outstanding academic performance.  That's an increase of more than 200 over the previous record reached in fall 2015 when the number of students on the UK Dean's List surpassed 7,000 for the first time.  Last semester's Dean's List includes over 700 more students than the spring 2016 semester's list.

"see blue." #selfie: Aaron and Joy

By Rebecca Stratton

Want to get to know the people behind some of the biggest student leadership positions on campus? We did, too! That's why we've introduced "see blue." #selfie — a series on UKNow that lets student leaders from across campus tell us a little bit more about themselves and their organizations. Up this week, Society for the Promotion of Undergraduate Research Co-presidents Aaron Mueller and Joy Kim.

Dr. King and Chatino Political Discourse

Dr. King & Chatino Political Discourse, an event in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

In March 1965, after the bloody march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a sermon entitled, "Our God is Marching On!" This is political discourse trying to affect change in racial understanding towards greater equality while using religious themes and oratorical styles found in the pulpit. In this lecture by Dr. Hilaria Cruz, there will be comparisons on theme, repetition and parallelism to the political discourse found in San Juan Quiahije, Oaxaca, Mexico. Here in this remote place another racial minority to the greater Mexican society strives for equality using religion in political discourse.

 

An event in honor of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. sponsored by the UK Department of Linguistics

Date:
Location:
WTY UKAA Auditorium

A&S Dean's List - Spring 2016 Recipients

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