Language and Social Justice

Catalog description

This course examines the contribution of language to a variety of social justice agendas by exploring how language is used to form and support unjust social structures. The course has two main aims. First, drawing from sociolinguistic theories of linguistic ideologies, the course aims to show the significance of language in how the hierarchization and ranking of languages in a society are produced, maintained, and reinforced. The second aim is to demonstrate the effects of such a hierarchization and ranking of languages on (in)equality in educational institutions and before the law. The topics covered in this course include the role of language in structuring individual identity and human relations and how this process characterizes the nature of social institutions in producing social inequality. As the course touches on issues pertinent to our daily lives, students' questions, comments, and relevant personal experiences and observations will play an important role in our exploration of how the language we use can affect opportunities and privileges in society.