Course: Language Race and Ethnicity in the U.S and its Territories

This course explores historical, cultural, and theoretical perspectives on the relationship between
language, race, and ethnicity in the United States and its territories. It examines how language is
understood to reflect, reproduce, and/or challenge and defy racial and ethnic boundaries, and how
ideas about race and ethnicity influence the ways in which people use and construe language. It
covers topics such as racialization and racism, ethnicization, notions of authenticity, repertoire,
codeswitching and style shifting, linguistic mocking and linguistic racism, language ideology, and
identity formation. This course will examine language varieties such as Black American English and
its cross-racial uses by other groups, Chicano English and Spanglish, Asian American English,
Hawaiian English, and American Indian English.