TITLE: Language and Prejudice: Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality

DATE: April 17 & April 24, 2015

TIME: 8:30AM-3:30PM

LOCATION: Montclair State University, University Hall, ADP Center, Room 1145

INSTRUCTOR: Alice Freed

While a number of complex national issues (the treatment of minorities by police, immigration policies, physical and sexual abuse of women and gays, etc.) have captured the headlines, the role of language in these discussions is often over-looked. This two-part seminar will examine the complex interaction between the diversity of American society and American English. We will consider our attitudes towards speakers whose English is different from our own and we will review the consequences of our opinions. It turns out that the language used by participants in some of the recent high-profile cases influenced people’s reactions to them, whether they were witnesses, victims, or public representatives. We will investigate why we form attitudes about people as soon as we hear them talk. We will consider how language and cultural assumptions interact – how each shapes and reflects the other. Finally, we will examine a variety of “myths” about how we think people talk and consider the “realities” of the language styles and varieties we hear around us.

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