Language and Linguistic Prejudice Related to Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Identity

The institute aims to address the fact that most people renounce discrimination related to race, ethnicity, gender, and identity, but continue holding discriminatory beliefs about language. The Institute will examine linguistic bias and discrimination tied to ethnicity and race as well as to gender. It will discuss the dominant linguistic ideology, Standard English and non-standard varieties, discrimination toward "foreigner accents," the English-only movement in the US, and the extermination of Native American languages during colonization. The Institute will further analyze gender stereotypes about language use and examine the multiple ways language reflects and further perpetuates such stereotypes, heteronormativity, and homophobia.