Q: What does Becker’s (1994) observation that “social groups seem to be bound primarily by a shared repertoire of prior texts” have to do with the job search (165)? A: A new way to approach Informational Interviewing. We know that when we sit down for an informational interview, it is important to ask our interviewee …
Continue reading “Intertextuality and Informational Interviewing: The what, how, and why”
Students often ask me questions about the IRB process couched in terms of what they *have* to do or about what I want them/need them to do for a particular project, to which I usually answer “what do YOU think you need to do?” By reframing the question in this way, I am not avoiding …
My most resent presentation at the American Anthropological AssociationNarrative presentation
Bring the energy and devotion that you bring to your classes to your job search! You have been trained to analyze cultures and to learn something about who they are by how they talk. In this same way that you are trained to look at cultures as ethnographers, look at the organization(s) to which you …
Continue reading “Ethnography, Narrative and the job search”
As analysts of language, we are very aware that any text can serve as a portrait of identity, and there are few documents more critical in the presentation of selves over the course of our lives than our resumes (CVs). But how can we as sociolinguists bring what we know about language and how it …
Begin by being reflective about yourself – Linguist, know thyself: Examine your own path with an eye to identifying patterns in the choices that you make and have made. In the way that you are trained as a sociolinguist to examine presuppositions, identify underlying assumptions and (often largely unsconscious) systematicity and patterning in your own …
Reading Blommaert today I am struck by the resonances with Doug Richardson’s talk to MLC students in the Proseminar last night. Specifically, he talks about 5 theoretical principles that underlie our research tradition as analysts of language. These also happen to resonate deeply with Doug’s observations about what social “work” takes place in the first …
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/392 Tim Brown, the CEO of the “innovation and design” firm IDEO talks about the need for (and benefit of) play in creativity. He gives some great activities to catalyze an audience in a smart and fun way!! What a great place to work!
When I think about raising awareness of sociolinguistics, one of the biggest contributions I feel compelled to make is in helping people become more aware of their culture and of themselves in intercultural interactions. As Agar (2007) observes “Culture is something those people ‘have,’ but it’s more than that. It’s also something that happens to …
Hi, I am Anna Marie Trester. I am the Assistant Director of the MA in Language and Communication (MLC) at Georgetown University in the Department of Linguistics. My work here involves raising awareness of the usefulness of Sociolinguistics in today’s workplace. In my research (on improvisational theater, peace vigils, and tourism in Costa Rica), professional …
Career Linguist 