The language we use forms an important part of our identity. The course will explore the role of language in constructing diverse identities: gender, national, ethnic, and religious. Throughout the world, and particularly in Western society, there are now strong pressures for social and racial integration. Some sociolinguistic studies have shown that greater intergroup contact can actually reinforce social distinctions and ethnic stereotypes. The course will examine conversational mechanisms, discourse conventions, socio-cultural factors, and tensions between personal and collective identities and politics of multilingualism.
The course will be of importance to linguists, anthropologists, psychologists and others interested in cross-cultural communication.
Professor Indira Y. Junghare
For more information, please e-mail:
