Speaker
Dragan Mikulin
PhD student
Dragan (ze/hir) is a joint PhD student in the Linguistics and Geography PhD programs. As a sociocultural linguist, hir research focuses on language ideologies, language and harm, dialectology, and language and community-making in queer and trans communities. Ze has taught Introduction to Composition, Global Language Issues, Introduction to the Study of Language, and several ESL courses as instructor of record, and has served as a TA for courses such as Language and Discrimination in U.S. Society; Language, Gender, and Sexuality; History of the English Language; Gender, Bodies, and Health; and Introduction to the Study of Language. Dragan’s work has been supported by the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, the Critical Language Scholarship, and the Fulbright Study/Research Award, among others. Hir current work focuses on the passive voice and victim-blaming.
Speaking in
Understanding and Addressing Linguistic Bias and Discrimination
This breakout session will focus on the concrete ways that language ideologies — attitudes and beliefs about the nature of language and about language variation — can reinforce and perpetuate stereotypes and result in discriminatory practices. The session will introduce a ‘raciolinguistic’ perspective to explore questions such as: What is standard(ized) English and whose language does it (not) represent? What does it mean to have an accent or to think you don’t? How do our beliefs about language influence how we perceive and treat others? What is linguistic discrimination? Participants will examine their own beliefs related to language, linguistic diversity, and language variation, and consider ways in which linguistic ideologies result in discriminatory practices in educational and other settings. Participants in this session will bridge the divide by learning how variation is an inherent characteristic of human language and how racial and other inequities are perpetuated by the stigmatization of certain language varieties. Participants in the session will realize belonging by considering how to identify and address linguistic bias and discrimination in their academic, professional and personal lives by engaging in reflection and in critical discussion with the presenters and one another.