On December 16, 2021 Ruken Isik of LLC Cohort 17 successfully defended her dissertation and earned the title of Doctor of Philosophy. Her degree will be conferred in May, 2022.

Her virtual defense went very smoothly and she gave a powerful presentation of her dissertation research, "Livable, Lovable, and Grievable Lives: Kurdish Women's Funerals in Northern Kurdistan/Turkey."

The program wishes to acknowledge the guidance and commitment of Ruken's committee:

Dr. Carole McCann, Gender, Women's, + Sexuality Studies, Chair

Dr. Beverly Bickel, Language, Literacy & Culture

Dr. Christine Mallinson, Language, Literacy & Culture

Dr. Mejdulene Shomali, Gender, Women's, + Sexuality Studies

Dr. Emek Ergun, Women's and Gender Studies Program and Department of Global Studies, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

On November 15, 2021 Harry Bhandari of LLC Cohort 19 successfully defended his dissertation and earned the title of Doctor of Philosophy. He is currently making final edits to his manuscript and hopes to have his degree conferred in December, but no later than May.

Harry's virtual defense went very smoothly and he gave an excellent presentation of his dissertation research, "The Political Participation and Linguistic Integration of Nepalese Americans."

The program wishes to acknowledge the guidance and commitment of Harry's committee:

Dr. Loren Henderson, Sociology, Anthropology & Public Health, Chair

Dr. Ramon Goings, Language, Literacy & Culture

Dr. Felipe Filomeno, Political Science

Dr. Brandy Wallace, Sociology, Anthropology & Public Health

Dr. Omar Ka, Modern Languages, Linguistics & Intercultural Communication

Dr. Uttam Gaulee, Morgan State University

Congratulations, Dr. Bhandari!

The Language, Literacy & Culture Doctoral Program's visiting lecturer, Dr. Rebeca Gamez, is offering a special topics course in the Spring 2022 semester called Ethnographies of Race, Space, and Place, LLC 750.

This interdisciplinary seminar course extends students' knowledge of reading, writing, and theorizing ethnography and applies this knowledge to the analysis and understanding of ethnographic works that examine relationships between race, space, and place.

Part of the course will center and explore work that ethnographically (and qualitatively) explores the intersection of race, space, and place as it relates to Baltimore City.

We will ask questions such as:

Graduate students from outside the LLC Program are welcome. Please contact Dr. Gamez for course permission at rgamez@umbc.edu.

Please see the attached flyer for more details.

Her project is titled, (Be)Longing: Singing the American Iliad. Ethnic Identity Discourses in the Public Sphere: A Micro-History of the German Community and Germania Hall in Troy, NY in Three Vignettes.

After Siobhan’s presentation, she had a substantive discussion with the committee about the next stages of her work. Her committee agreed that the project is worthy of doctoral research and helped Siobhan consider some key issues as she moves forward into the research and writing.

The LLC Program is pleased to announce that Ciara Christian of Cohort 21, successfully and skillfully presented her dissertation research proposal to her committee on September 30, 2021.

Her project is titled, "Talkin' Shit, Pouring Libations, and Building Community: Exploring Podcasts as a Contemporary Site of Black Feminist Knowledge Production and Activism."

After Ciara's presentation, she had a substantive discussion with the committee about the next stages of her work. Ciara's committee agreed that the project is worthy of doctoral research and helped her consider some key issues as she moves forward into the research and writing.

Many thanks to Ciara's committee members:

     Dr. Brandy Wallace, SAPH (chair)

     Dr. Kimberly Moffitt, LLC (co-chair)

     Dr. Jason Loviglio, MCS

     Dr. Jasmine Lee, Student Affairs

     Dr. Tina Harris, LSU

    

Congratulations to Christine Mallinson, Professor of LLC and Director of the Center for Social Science Scholarship, who has just received official notification of a grant titled, "Collaborative Research: Linguistic Production, Perception, and Identity in the Career Mobility of Black Faculty in Linguistics and the Language Sciences." Her co-PI is Anne H. Charity Hudley of Stanford University.

Here is an abstract of the research project:

This mixed-methodological study examines how Black faculty in the language sciences and related areas linguistically navigate their professional experiences. Black faculty are skilled at navigating between varieties of English, with strong perceptual linguistic abilities and linguistic flexibility. At the same time, linguistic inequalities may cause Black faculty to experience the structural realities of racism through the continuous evaluation of their language. These findings will yield insight into how language discrimination plays a role in the systemic underrepresentation of Black scholars in academia and how language plays a role in those processes. The study also examines professional inequalities for Black scholars in the language sciences and related areas to provide precise data that language researchers can use to broaden participation in linguistics departments and programs.

The study uses a community-based participatory approach that includes ten junior and mid-career scholars from Minority Serving (MSIs) and Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) as research partners. The study uses interviews, focus groups, and surveys to reach additional 100 Black faculty. The main questions that the study asks are: How and when do Black faculty in linguistics and the language sciences use Black language practices in higher education? How has their linguistic use affected their academic participation and career mobility? The study tests and refines the linguistic model of language subordination by measuring the impacts of both structural and internalized racism on language choice. The study builds on the Co-PI's prior work that examined the linguistic choices of Black undergraduates by analyzing how students variably express racial identity while navigating linguistic expectations in academic settings. This study will take a similar approach, incrementally extending theoretical and empirical models to address these dynamics facing Black faculty, adding much-needed nuance to the model regarding Black scholars while testing the applicability of linguistic models used in education to adult professionals.

On August 23, 2021 May Chung of LLC Cohort 17 successfully defended her dissertation and earned the title of Doctor of Philosophy. Her degree will be conferred in December, 2021.

Her virtual defense went very smoothly and she gave an excellent presentation of her dissertation research, "Mandarin-English Dual Language Education: Understanding Parental Ideologies and Expectations."

The program wishes to acknowledge the guidance and commitment of May's committee:

Dr. Sarah Shin, Education, Chair

Dr. Christine Mallinson, LLC, Co-Chair

Dr. Jiyoon Lee, Education

Dr. Fan Yang, Media and Communication Studies

Dr. Beverly Bickel, LLC

Congratulations, Dr. Chung!

This summer, Katie Morris (LLC Cohort 18) and Montia Gardner (LLC Cohort 19) defended their dissertations and graduated with their PhDs!

Dissertation Chairs: Beverly Bickel (LLC) and Francine Hultgren (UMD)

Committee members: Tania Lizarazo (MLLI), Thania Muñoz (MLLI), and Deborah Gioia (UMB SSW)

Dissertation Chair: Pamela Bennett (Public Policy)

Committee members: Kimberly Moffitt (LLC), Keisha Allen (Education), Latonya Turner (Marion University), and Ramon Goings (LLC)

We look forward to celebrating with Katie and Montia in person in December!

On June 30, 2021 Montia Gardner of LLC Cohort 19 successfully defended her dissertation and earned the title of Doctor of Philosophy. Her degree will be conferred in August, 2021.

Her virtual defense went very smoothly and she gave an excellent presentation of her dissertation research, "Shadowed Beneath Thy Hand: Organizational Capital and the Cultivation of Academic Talent at a Low-SES Suburban High School."

The program wishes to acknowledge the guidance and commitment of Montia's committee:

Dr. Pamela Bennett (PUBL), Chair

Dr. Kimberly Moffitt (LLC)

Dr. Keisha McIntosh Allen (EDUC)

Dr. Ramon Goings (LLC)

Dr. LaTonya Turner (Marian University)

The LLC Program is pleased to announce that Sonya Squires-Caesar of Cohort 13, successfully and skillfully presented her dissertation research proposal to her committee on May 20, 2021.

Her project is titled, "Money Tales: Tangled Financial Socialization of US Immigrants' Use of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations."

After Sonya's presentation, she had a substantive discussion with the committee about the next stages of her work. Sonya's committee agreed that the project is worthy of doctoral research and helped her consider some key issues as she moves forward into the research and writing.

Many thanks to Sonya's committee members:

     Dr. Craig Saper, LLC (chair)

     Dr. Kevin Eckert, SAPH

     Dr. Nicole King, AMST

     Dr. Tamara Bhalla, AMST

     Dr. Yvette Mozie-Ross, Office of the Provost