I have a joint position across the Department of Linguistics and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder. I currently act as Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Linguistics. I also advise many MA and PhD students in the areas of linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, and socially oriented discourse analysis.
My graduate students receive a broad education in the interdisciplinary field of sociocultural linguistics through courses offered both in the Department of Linguistics and in the interdisciplinary graduate certificate program CLASP, which supports teaching and research in the area of “Culture, Language, and Social Practice.”
My PhD students work on diverse topics that include modernity and race in the discourse of Umbanda practitioners in São Paulo, Brazil (Marcus Avelar), causation and indexicality in mental illness narratives associated with autism (Ayden Parish), intonation and identity among first generation Appalachian college students (Jessica Holman), white nationalism in discourses of the alt-right (Maureen Kosse), the social politics of Singlish in Singapore (Velda Khoo), feminist identity positioning among US college students (Olivia Hirschey), and the negotiation of power between ethnic majorities and minorities in Myanmar (Chu Paing).
Although today’s job market is very competitive, I am pleased to report that my former PhD students have taken jobs that include tenure track positions in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California Santa Barbara (Lal Zimman), the Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois (Jenny Davis), and the Institute of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Nagoya University, Japan (Chad Nilep). My other students hold positions at the University of Wyoming and the CU Boulder Center for Media, Religion, and Culture (Susanne Stadlbauer), the Department of English at Carnegie Mellon University Qatar (Adam Hodges), the Community College of Denver (Weldu Weldeyesus), and Windhorse Community Services Home-Based Recovery of Mental Health, Inc. (Lori Heintzelman).
MA and PhD students interested in sociocultural linguistics at the University of Colorado Boulder will find additional resources, support, and friendly students in the interdisciplinary Culture, Language, and Social Practice (CLASP) program. The program features 35 affiliated faculty members from 12 university departments. More information on the CLASP program can be found at the CLASP website.