Embedded Files
This is a tentative list of scheduled topics we'll cover in ENG420/582, Language and Identity.
This is a tentative list of scheduled topics we'll cover in ENG420/582, Language and Identity.
All content is subject to change, because I update this course to be responsive to current events. Our discussions will also shape the content of this course--please check this page later in the semester for updates!
I welcome all students to share content suggestions that draw upon your creativity and life experiences.
The schedule of student-led discussions will be updated on Canvas.
🛑 One more thing... Important note about a possible work stoppage during the semester.
The California Faculty Association (the labor union of Lecturers, Professors, Coaches, Counselors, and Librarians across the 23 CSU campuses) is in a difficult contract dispute with California State University management.
It is possible that we will call a strike or other work stoppage this term. I promise to promptly inform you of any schedule disruption. Our working conditions are your learning conditions; we seek to protect both. For further information go to www.CFAbargaining.org.
Week 1
Week 1
Module 1
Tuesday, August 29
What's in a name?
What's in a name?
What's does your name mean to you? Who gets to determine if a name is "hard to pronounce"?
In class: Nguyen (2021) - America ruined my name for me. So I chose a new one.
Module 2
Thursday, August 31
That's (not) my name!
That's (not) my name!
Why are our names important to us? How does this intersect with language? How do we articulate language?
In class: Preview of Bucholtz (2016); Introducing articulatory phonetics.
Week 2
Week 2
Module 3
Tuesday, September 5
What'd you say? Phonetics, phonology, and your name
What'd you say? Phonetics, phonology, and your name
How do we articulate language, both vocalized and signed? How might our differences inform our pronunciation of names?
In class: Drawing articulatory diagrams.
Handout: Another preview of Bucholtz (2016).
Module 4
Thursday, September 7
"Aquí no hay gente de color" (Here there are no people of color).
"Aquí no hay gente de color" (Here there are no people of color).
👂🏽🎶 Listen: AfroLatinx Podcast (2017) - Episode #1: Myth of racial mixture in Latinx communities (22 mins).
In class: Githiora (2008) - Preface to Afro-Mexicans: Discourse of "race" and identity in the African Diaspora.
Week 3
Week 3
✏️ Student-led discussion
Module 5
Tuesday, September 12
Considering names, deadnames, and language ideologies
Considering names, deadnames, and language ideologies
👂🏽🎶 Listen: AfroLatinx Podcast (2017) - Episode #2: In between Black and Latinx (25 mins).
Bucholtz (2016) - On being called out of one’s name: Indexical bleaching as a technique of deracialization.
Module 6
Thursday, September 14
Language and intersectionality
Language and intersectionality
👂🏽🎶 Listen: AfroLatinx Podcast (2017) - Episode #3: Beyond the bounds of race (28 mins).
Excerpts from Lorde (1982) - Zami: A new spelling of my name, Chapter 21 (pp. 154-160), and Chapter 23 ( pp. 176-183).
Week 4
Week 4
✏️ Student-led discussion
Module 7
Tuesday, September 19
Defining social identity by examining our own experiences
Defining social identity by examining our own experiences
Norton Peirce (1995) - Social identity, investment, and language learning.
Zimman (2009) - 'The other kind of coming out': Transgender people and the coming out narrative genre.
✏️ Student-led discussion
Module 8
Thursday, September 21
Theorizing nicknames, hip hop, race, and masculinity in language learning
Theorizing nicknames, hip hop, race, and masculinity in language learning
👂🏽🎶 Listen: Classic hip hop songs of your choice. "50 hip hop artists share 50 songs they love" Spotify playlist by Washington Post (2023).
Thomas (2023) - Everything is political, dawg. (Excerpt from forthcoming book Zombies Speak Swahili.)
👂🏽🎶 Listen: "Aborigeny" - Afro-Ukrainian hip hop album by Alfa-Alfa (2020, based in Kyiv).
Helbig (2014) - Afro-Ukrainian hip hop fusion (Chapter 4, pp. 135-164).
Jack & Yaya. (2021).
Jack & Yaya. (2021).
From a young age, Yaya and Jack saw each other as they truly were, a girl and a boy, even though most of the world didn’t see them that way.
As they grew older, they supported each other as they both came out as transgender.
JACK & YAYA follows these two friends for a year and explores their unique, thirty-year relationship.
Week 5
Week 5
✏️ Student-led discussion
Module 9
Tuesday, September 26
Theorizing race, gender, and language in postcolonial contexts
Theorizing race, gender, and language in postcolonial contexts
Thomas (2023) - Downtown Swahili, mestizo myths, and sexual chocolate on the night of the Mexican Day of the Dead. (Excerpt from forthcoming book Zombies Speak Swahili.)
Module 10
Thursday, September 28
Quiz #1 and review; Considering final group projects
Quiz #1 and review; Considering final group projects
Let's take this opportunity to review what we know so far, and check our understanding.
Identity Wheel: We'll review key concepts through this exercise.
Week 6
Week 6
✏️ Student-led discussion
Module 11
Tuesday, October 3
Transnational Zapotec indigeneity in North America
Transnational Zapotec indigeneity in North America
Alberto (2017) - Coming Out as Indian: On Being an Indigenous Latina in the U.S.
Module 12
Thursday, October 5 - NO CLASS (due to conference travel)
Virtual museum visit: The Kwakwaka'wakw people of North America; Land and identity
Virtual museum visit: The Kwakwaka'wakw people of North America; Land and identity
Planning final projects
Planning final projects
Explore Kwakwaka'wakw (pronounced: KWOK-wok-ya-wokw) language, culture, and society through an interactive, online virtual tour of the Potlatch Gallery at U'mista Cultural Centre (British Columbia, Canada).
Twance (2019) - Learning from land and water: Exploring mazinaabikiniganan as Indigenous epistemology.
Optional: Leonard (2020) - Musings on Native American language reclamation and sociolinguistics.
Indigenous Peoples' Day is Monday, October 9!
Indigenous Peoples' Day is Monday, October 9!
For more information, please explore additional resources.
LA Times (2017): LA City Council replaces Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day on city calendar.
USA Today (2022): What is Indigenous Peoples' Day? Is it offensive to celebrate Columbus Day? Everything to know.
Week 7
Week 7
Portrait of Dr. Patricia Rosborough.
✏️ Student-led discussion
Module 13
Tuesday, October 10
Indigenous language revitalization and reclamation
Indigenous language revitalization and reclamation
👂🏽🎶 Listen: Unreserved Podcast (2019) - Trish Rosborough speaks Kwak'wala. (8 mins)
Trish Rosborough, chuutsqa Layla Rorick, and Suzanne Urbanczyk (2017) - Beautiful Words: Enriching and Indigenizing Kwak'wala Revitalization through Understandings of Linguistic Structure.
✏️ Student-led discussion
Module 14
Thursday, October 12
Introducing Kwakwaka'wakw language and identity
Introducing Kwakwaka'wakw language and identity
👁️🎶 Watch: "Our People > Our People: People of the Potlatch" - Module #1 of Living Tradition website.
T’łat’łaḵuł Patricia Rosborough and čuucqa Layla Rorick (2017) - Following in the footsteps of the wolf: Connecting scholarly minds to ancestors in Indigenous language revitalization.
Week 8
Week 8
Guest speaker this week!
Portrait of Dr. Xóchitl Flores-Marcial
Guest Speaker:
Associate Professor of History & Chicano/a Studies - Cal State Northridge (CSUN)
Module 15
Tuesday, October 17
Potlatch, guelaguetza, and intergenerational transmission of Indigenous language and identity
Potlatch, guelaguetza, and intergenerational transmission of Indigenous language and identity
👁️🎶 Watch: "Potlatch > Potlatch, Potlatch Ban, and Our Masks Come Home" - Module #4 of Living Tradition website.
Module 16
Thursday, October 19 - NO CLASS (due to conference travel)
Kwakwaka'wakw history and language
Kwakwaka'wakw history and language
👁️🎶 Watch: "Our People > Our Land: Kwakwaka'wakw Territories" - Module #2 of Living Tradition website.
Goodfellow (2005) - Acknowledgments, and Chapter 3 (History of Contact in the Kwakwaka'wakw Region)
Goodfellow (2005) - Chapter 5 (Language Use in Context)
Week 9
Week 9
✏️ Student-led discussion
Module 17
Tuesday, October 24
Language, identity, and ownership of Indigeneity: Kwakiutl Tales, Swahili Tales, the legacy of Franz Boas, and "Indian" residential schools
Language, identity, and ownership of Indigeneity: Kwakiutl Tales, Swahili Tales, the legacy of Franz Boas, and "Indian" residential schools
McNeilly (1997) - His Own Narrator: Franz Boas and the Kwakiutl Tales.
👁️🎶 Watch video: Thomas Residential School
Brower (2010) - Babuzimwi. [On legacies of colonialism through storytelling in Swahili-speaking Zanzibar and coastal Tanzania]
✏️ Student-led discussion
Module 18
Thursday, October 26
The changing language use of Kwakwaka'wakw communities
The changing language use of Kwakwaka'wakw communities
👂🏽🎶 Listen: "Our People > Our Language: Kwak'wala" - Module #3 of Living Tradition website.
Goodfellow (2005) - Chapter 4 (Grammatical, Phonological, and Lexical Changes to Kwak'wala)
Goodfellow (2005) - Chapter 6 (Continuity and Change in Language and Language Use)
Week 10
Week 10
Module 19
Tuesday, October 31 - NO CLASS, Halloween Night
🎃 Please celebrate safely, and share in our Canvas discussion!
Module 20
Thursday, November 2
Día de los Muertos/ Day of the Dead
Quiz #2 and review; Planning final projects
Quiz #2 and review; Planning final projects
Let's take this opportunity to review what we know so far, and check our understanding.
Week 11
Week 11
Guest speaker this week!
Portrait of Dr. Laurian Bowles.
Portrait of linguistic anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston.
Module 21
Tuesday, November 7
Introducing Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon, and Africatown
Introducing Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon, and Africatown
Guest speaker: Dr. Laurian Bowles
Associate Professor and Chair of Anthropology, Davidson College
👂🏽🎶 Listen: NPR audio (2019) - Alabama's Africatown hopes for revival after slave ship discovery (7 mins).
Hurston (2018) - Foreword, Introduction, Editor's Note--by Editor Deborah G. Plant, Preface, and Introduction (pp. xi - 16).
✏️ Student-led discussion
Module 22
Thursday, November 9
Discourses of deportees, refugees, and migrants: Oluale Kossula (Cudjoe Lewis)
Discourses of deportees, refugees, and migrants: Oluale Kossula (Cudjoe Lewis)
Hurston (2018) - Chapters I-IV (pp. 17-42).
Diouf (2007) - Acknowledgments, Introduction, Mobile and the slave trades (Chapter 1) (pp. ix-29).
Descendant. (2022).
Descendant. (2022).
Descendant --a Netflix documentary film by executive producers Questlove and Barack and Michelle Obama-- tells the story of the Clotilda - the last known ship to smuggle stolen Africans to America.
The film chronicles the unthinkable cover-up, and the impact of that crime on generations of descendants living in Africatown, located in Mobile, Alabama.
Once the past is revealed, can the future be reclaimed?
Week 12
Week 12
Portrait of Dr. Sylviane A. Diouf
✏️ Student-led discussion
Module 23
Tuesday, November 14
Tracing identity from Benin, through enslavement to freedom in Alabama
Tracing identity from Benin, through enslavement to freedom in Alabama
National Park Service (n.d.) - Reconnecting Creeks to Culture in Africatown.
Hurston (2018) - Chapters V-VIII (pp. 43-69).
Diouf (2007) - West African Origins (Chapter 2, pp. 30-54).
Diouf (2007) - Ouidah (Chapter 3, pp. 55-71).
✏️ Student-led discussion
Module 24
Thursday, November 16
The freedom to name yourself: Legacies of Carter G. Woodson and Franz Boas in Zora Neale Hurston's contributions
The freedom to name yourself: Legacies of Carter G. Woodson and Franz Boas in Zora Neale Hurston's contributions
Hurston (2018) - Chapters IX-VIII (pp. 71-94), Afterword by Deborah G. Plant (pp. 117-138), Acknowledgements (pp 139-143).
Diouf (2007) - Freedom (Chapter 6, pp. 126-150).
Week 13
Week 13
Module 25
Tuesday, November 21 - NO CLASS
Preparing final projects
Preparing final projects
Please use this time to coordinate with your group on your collaborative project and presentation.
View of sweet potato pie - a holiday favorite!
Module 26
Thursday, November 23 - NO CLASS, Thanksgiving Day
Week 14
Week 14
Guest speaker this week!
Portrait of Dr. Erica Britt
Module 27
Tuesday, November 28
What is the relationship between language and identity? Review and discussion
What is the relationship between language and identity? Review and discussion
Guest speaker: Dr. Erica Britt
Associate Teaching Professor of Linguistics, Emory University
Britt (2011) - "Can the church say amen?" Strategic uses of Black preaching style at the Black State of the Union
Module 28
Thursday, November 30 - NO CLASS (due to conference travel)
Preparing final projects
Preparing final projects
Please use this time to coordinate with your group on the final project and presentation.
Week 15
Week 15
Last week of class!
Module 29
Tuesday, December 5 - NO CLASS (due to conference travel)
Preparing final projects
Preparing final projects
Please use this time to coordinate with your group on the final project and presentation.
Module 30
Thursday, December 7
Screening of final group projects
Screening of final group projects
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
Group 7
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