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Unsettling Language Barriers: Redefining Communicative “Problems” and Reimagining Decolonial Possibilities
April 6, 2021 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
FreeSLA Lecture Series: Critical Approaches to Applied Language Studies
JONATHAN ROSA
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, CENTER FOR COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN RACE AND ETHNICITY, AND, BY COURTESY, DEPARTMENTS OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND LINGUISTICS, STANFORD UNIVERSITY
4:00 pm Central time, Tuesday, April 6, 2021
Register HERE
Abstract: Legacies of colonialism often lead to the framing of marginalized populations’ linguistic practices as learning impediments, thereby scapegoating them as primary causes of educational and broader societal problems. This presentation draws on critical decolonial perspectives to understand the historical and contemporary consolidation of borders delimiting languages, identities, and geographies. Such a reconceptualization points to opportunities for reckoning, redress, and reimagination that emerge when we approach marginalized communities not as communicatively deficient, but rather as dynamic linguistic contexts that unsettle conventional assumptions about knowledge, skills, and schooling.
About the speaker: Jonathan Rosa is Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, and, by courtesy, Departments of Anthropology and Linguistics, at Stanford University. His research analyzes the interplay between racial marginalization, linguistic stigmatization, and educational inequity. Dr. Rosa collaborates with schools and communities to track these phenomena and develop tools for understanding and eradicating the forms of disparity to which they correspond. He is author of the book Looking like a Language, Sounding like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the Learning of Latinidad (2019, Oxford University Press) and co-editor of the volume Language and Social Justice in Practice (2019, Routledge). Dr. Rosa’s research has appeared in scholarly journals such as the Harvard Educational Review, American Ethnologist, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, and Language in Society, as well as media outlets such as MSNBC, NPR, CNN, and Univision. He obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago, and his B.A. in Linguistics and Educational Studies from Swarthmore College.
Delivery format: The talk will be held on Zoom.
Sponsor: This lecture is part of the Second Language Acquisition Talk Series and is co-sponsored by the Language Institute. Funding is from the Anonymous Fund.
Contact: Jana Martin, Associate Director, Language Institute
The UW-Madison Language Institute is committed to inclusive and accessible programming. To request an accommodation for this event, please contact Jana Martin three business days in advance.
