MMUF-SSRC Chicago Regional Lecture

This year's speaker for the Chicago Regional Lecture will be MMUF PhD Dr. Jonathan Rosa, Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Education and Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford University. He is currently a Ford Postdoctoral Fellow in the Latina/o Studies Program at Northwestern University. Dr. Rosa received his BA in linguistics and educational studies from Swarthmore College, and his MA and PhD in anthropology from the University of Chicago. His research combines sociocultural and linguistic anthropology to theorize the co-naturalization of language and race. Specifically, he analyzes the interplay between racial marginalization, linguistic stigmatization, and educational inequality.

The title of his talk will be "Looking Like a Language, Sounding Like a Race: A Semiotics of Racial and Linguistic Profiling." Dr. Rosa will discuss how this creation of linguistic and racial categories is representative of the consolidation and proliferation of modern biopower, resulting in the profound social fact that populations come to look like a language and sound like a race across cultural contexts.

Fellows at all levels of the program, including current undergraduates, are welcome to attend, as are coordinators. Please RSVP to mellonmays@ssrc.org no later than Wednesday, March 30th. Please note that if you are not living in the Chicago area but would like to attend, you must RSVP to ensure a spot at the lecture.