The abstracts below are summaries of papers by junior scholars from the 2015 edition of my course, Language and Societies, and presented at the course blog of the same name. The authors are undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology and linguistics at Wayne State University. Over the next few weeks, some students will be posting links to PDF versions of their final papers below their abstracts. Comments and questions are extremely welcome, especially at this critical juncture over the next week, when the authors are making final revisions to their papers.
Kat Slocum: Greensky Hill Native American Methodist Church: the role of language in group identity
Nicole Lopinski:‘The Hobbit’: An Analysis of Popular Media Portrayal of Homo floresiensis
Kimberly Oliver: Voodoo in Popular Music: Linguistic Semantics’ Influence on Identity and Stereotype Formation
Laura Cunningham: #NotAllMen and the Blame Game: A critical discourse analysis of a Twitter hashtag
Krist Bollano: Word Frequency and Online Dating: Self Promotion Through a Text-Based Medium
Adam Bender: Is Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) Appropriate for Adapting Quechua to Modern Society?
Dovie Jenkins: Logically Speaking: Loglan, Lojban and the Search for a Logical Language
Erika Carrillo: Hoarding and the Material Accumulation of Time
Grace Pappalardo: Hausa Kinship Terminologies: Insights Into Culture and Cognition
Jaroslava Maria Pallas: From Little Acorns Big Oaks Grow: Exploring the nature metaphor in anarchist discourse
Kaitlin Scharra: Menstrual Authority: A Lexical Semantic Evaluation of Kotex’s First 20 Years
Sarah Beste: Pornography of Ruin: The Metaphor of Sensuality in Ruination as It Applies to Detroit
Mark Jazayeri: Arriving at a Cultural Model of Artificial Intelligence
Glenda Wyatt-Franklin: In Front of the White People: Black Speech, White Perceptions, and the Effects on African American Health
Samantha Malette: “Emerald Isle of the Caribbean”: Montserrat’s “Brogue” Examined
Kayla Niner: Don’t Stay Here!: An Analysis of Words Used to Describe One-Star Class Hotels
Madeleine Seidel: Retelling Snow White: The Tale and its Reflection of Western Culture
Michelle Layton: Creating an Image of Purity Through the Use of Metaphor: The Case of Pure Michigan
Theia Easley: Language of Inclusivity: Womanist Theological Thought in Addressing Issues of Social Injustice
Eduardo Piqueiras: Countering an Equitable Multilingualism with an EU English Variant: The Role of Language Policies and Translators in the European Union
Elizabeth Bonora: Identity and Ink: An Interpretation of Kanji Tattoos on English-Speaking Bodies
Wendy Hill: The language of the law: linguistic discord in the courtroom
Livija G. Marina: Serbian Heritage Language Maintenance and Language Shift: Identity of the ‘Voice’ from a Serbian Orthodox Church in Michigan
Andrés Romero: Testimonios of Violence: A Discourse Analysis of Colombian Demobilized Paramilitaries
S.M. Hamdan: Identity & Second Language Acquisition: International Saudi Students Studying Abroad
Kathryn Nowinski: Constructing Identity through Sound: Brand Naming Practices and Phonetic Symbolism
Richard D.H. Bridges: Catching It in the Net: Some Lulzy Acronyms
Jeff Rowe: Divergent Definitions of Food Justice: A Critical Discourse Analysis
Inger Sundell-Ranby: Use of the word ague by pioneers in the Midwest
Glossographia 