Spring 2024
Note: This list may not be comprehensive. Should you know of other CLASP-related courses not on this list, please contact kira.hall@colorado.edu.
COMM 6445: Intercultural Communication
Instructor: Prof. David Boromisza-Habashi
Time: TTH 2:00-3:15
The purpose of this course is to interpret intercultural communication (ICC) as social interaction in particular socio-cultural contexts, to understand how ICC (thus conceived) can become a site and source of interactional and social problems, and to review strategies for intervening into such problems. The course will consist of three parts. In Part 1, we will review language-focused scholarship that sheds light on contexts in which ICC presents itself as an object of study and the limits of ICC as an explanatory framework. Such scholarship will cover topics such as migration, globalization, colonialization, and inequality. Part 2 will focus on one particular approach to ICC, namely cultural discourse theory (CDT) and its attendant methodological framework, cultural discourse analysis (CuDA). We will use this approach to map the relationship between language use, culture, and cultural difference. Part 3 of the course will cover pedagogical and applied approaches to interactional problems in ICC. Students will have the opportunity to leverage course materials to design their own interventions.
EDUC 5015: International & Comparative Education
Instructor: Prof. Andrea Dyrness
Time: Th 5:00-7:30pm
This course explores the relationship between education and social change in different regions of the world, with a focus on the experience of marginalized groups (e.g., indigenous groups, street and working children, immigrants and ethnic minorities, women and girls). How do issues of equity, democracy, diversity and justice play out in education around the world? Education is often assumed to be a vehicle for social transformation and democratization, but in many countries where education has expanded, poverty and social inequality persist. How does education intersect with inequalities of race, class, gender, and language in different societies, and how might it challenge these inequalities? Where do we glimpse the transformative potential of education? Assigned course readings are drawn from several regions across the globe, with a focus on perspectives from the Global South.
Note: This is a CLASP-adjacent course: students may opt to do a CLASP-related final paper for CLASP credit.
EDUC 5625: Methods of English Language Development
Instructor: Prof. Deb Palmer
Time: Tuesdays 5-7:30pm
Intended audience: any/all MA Students (or undergraduates) interested in teaching ELD/ESL/EFL
This course prepares teachers to teach English language development in U.S. public schools. It covers both theoretical and applied aspects of language learning and teaching, and provides general educators and second language specialists techniques, activities, strategies and resources to plan instruction for Emergent bilinguals (ELLs). Oral language development, literacy, and content-area instruction are emphasized for teaching K-5 students. The goal of this class is to introduce you to the teaching of English as a new language not only for linguistic development, but for cognitive, academic, and social development as well.
EDUC 5635: Education and Sociolinguistics
Instructor: Prof. Mileidis Gort
Time: Mondays, 5:20-7:50 pm
This course introduces students to the discipline of sociolinguistics—which is the study of language distribution, variation, status, use, and choice—and its application to education, especially in the context of bilingual education and the education of emergent bilinguals (English language learners). Areas of study include language policy, variation, speech communities, speech and social identities, and sociolinguistic research related to learning, teaching, and assessment.
LING 5700: Conversation Analysis & Interactional Linguistics
Instructor: Prof. Chase Raymond
Time: Thursdays, 3:30-6:00pm
Although everyday conversation is commonly conceived of as random and chaotic—overrun with false starts, hitches, pauses, misunderstandings, topic shifts, and the like—in reality conversation is the product of a highly systematic and organized machinery. This graduate-level course aims to unpack some of the orderliness of this machinery by providing an introduction to the theories and methods of Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics (CA/IL). The majority of our time will be spent tackling several of the fundamental features of human social interaction—e.g., turn-taking, sequence and preference organization, repair, reference, and epistemics—including cross-linguistic and cross-cultural considerations. After laying this foundation, we will also briefly introduce how CA/IL can be brought to bear on interaction in institutional settings (e.g., medical care, customer service), as well as contribute to our understanding of the link between language and identity. Throughout our discussion, the empirical rigor of CA/IL will be underscored, which we will argue offers a powerful lens through which to examine human sociality and engage in social theorizing.
As opposed to a lecture-only class, this course is designed to be as ‘hands-on’ as possible. That is, students will be expected to take what we learn in lecture and in the readings, and apply that knowledge to novel data they haven’t seen before. As such, ample time will be devoted to data-focused activities. Depending on the aims and objectives of those students enrolled, there may also be an opportunity for us to undertake a class-wide research project, to get some intensive, first-hand knowledge with the CA/IL research process. Both MA and PhD students are welcome to enroll; please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly if you have any questions!
LING 7800: Neurodiversity in Sociocultural Linguistics
Instructor: Prof. Kira Hall
Time: Tuesdays 3:30-6:00pm
This exploratory seminar seeks to uncover how neurodiversity, broadly defined, challenges the ways sociocultural linguists have theorized the relationship between language and social life. Understood as the range of human cognitive and neurological variance, neurodiversity has been classically marginalized as only of interest through a medicalized, pathologizing lens. The neurodiversity movement, however, advocates that these differences should not be seen as biomedical entities to be first and foremost cured, but as variation to be accommodated and as lived experiences whose perspectives should be recognized and valued. Across the social sciences, neurodiversity-affirming approaches have come to demonstrate that a sociocultural angle is necessary, both in order to improve theorization of neurodiverse conditions and also to bring a new critical eye to current theories that only account for normative relationships with language and sociality. Crucially, these critiques make important steps in asserting the agency of neurodivergent individuals. This seminar seeks to enrich these discussions with specific attention to sociocultural linguistics as a site for neurodiverse intervention.
The goal of the course is to demonstrate the necessity of incorporating neurodiversity into the study of language in social life and to showcase the productive new directions engendered by such approaches. The course will advance a broad vision of neurodiversity that includes not only neurodevelopmental disabilities such as autism, ADHD, and Tourette syndrome, but also other neurological conditions like dementia and aphasia, as well as mental illnesses, including but not limited to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and OCD. Students will work to master the academic literature with respect to a particular area of neurodiversity, in order to come up with an argument regarding why sociocultural linguistics needs neurodiversity as a concept and how it challenges our thinking in central ways. To that end, participants will establish a research project related to their selected topic and submit a draft paper at the conclusion of the seminar.
The seminar will include readings from a diversity of disciplinary viewpoints, including linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, socially-oriented discourse analysis, crip linguistics and related perspectives, among others. Specific readings and additional course information will be given on the first seminar meeting in the spring semester, though likely topics include:
- Analyses of interactions amongst neurodiverse speakers
- Ethnographic approaches to language and embodiment in neurodiverse communities
- Discourse analytical approaches to the construction of neurodiversity and neurotypicality
- Critical reframings of traditionally pathologized linguistic behaviors such as echolalia or “disorganized” speech
- Other creative, socially-oriented approaches to the intersection of neurodiversity and linguistics
If you have further questions about the seminar, please contact Kira Hall at kira.hall@colorado.edu.
SPAN 5430/7430: Applications of Usage-based Phonological Theory and Methods
Instructor: Prof. Esther Brown
Time: Tuesday/Thursday 2:00 - 3:15pm
This course will introduce students to foundational concepts in usage-based phonology. We will consider research that tests usage-based theories and methods. From these studies we will make explicit the steps involved in the identification of variants and variables, the delimitation of research projects, data collection, data management, data coding, statistical analyses, and interpretations of results. We will examine applications of usage-based theory and methods to models of language contact and second language acquisition underscoring some novel contributions of the theory. The course aims to introduce new perspectives for the study of bilingualism and language change as well as understand the linguistic assumptions underlying predominant second language acquisition pedagogies.
Also consider these methods workshops!
CARTSS and ITSS (Interdisciplinary Training in the Social Sciences): Narrative Analysis 2-Part Workshop
Instructor: Prof. Leslie Irvine (email leslie.irvine@colorado.edu to receive link)
Time: Wednesdays, Feb 7 and 14, 12-2pm, Zoom
Course description:
Narrative, or stories of various sorts, constitutes a basic aspect of human interaction. A narrative research approach is characterized by the convictions that people make meanings, that meaning is organized in sequences (which is to say that meaning is made through stories), and that these meanings have consequences at both individual and collective levels. Because people construct narratives from available social and cultural materials, the analysis of narratives can shed light on longstanding questions — where identities come from and how they influence social action; how inequalitites are maintained and reproduced; why some social movements gain traction when others don't; how authority and power become institutionalized — while upsetting longstanding answers to ideas about culture, self-interest, and instrumental rationality. This workshop addresses general issues such as the definition of narrative and the narrative turn in social science, the distinction between those who approach narrative as explanation and those who understand it as an object of inquiry, the work narratives do in constructing meaning, selves, social groups, institutions, collective resistance, and inequality, and varied methodological approaches to analyzing narratives.
This workshop series is sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Training in the Social Sciences (ITSS), coordinated by the Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences (CARTSS) and the Institute of Behavioral Science. https://www.colorado.edu/cartss/interdisciplinary-training-social-scienc....
CARTSS and ITSS (Interdisciplinary Training in the Social Sciences): Qualitative Data Analysis Tools
Instructors: Nickoal Eichmann-Kalwara, nickoal.eichmann@colorado.edu and Elizabeth Novosel elizabeth.novosel@colorado.edu
Dates and Times: 10:00am-12:00pm, Thursday, February 8, 2024; 10:00am-12:00pm, Thursday February 15, 2024; 10:00am-12:00pm, Thursday February 22, 2024
This short course will overview qualitative data methods and tools for collection, analysis, and visualization including critical and practical qualitative data tool selection based on topic area and research agenda. Qualitative data research and analysis includes growing technical aspects with numerous tools to choose from. This is a practical crash course in qualitative data tools focused on maximizing the efficacy of tool selection and usage through critical assessment of research goals for analysis. Topics will include data collection through the lens of planned analysis, QDA open-source and paid tools, and visualization for data reporting. No previous experience with programming or research methods is required.
This workshop series is sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Training in the Social Sciences (ITSS), coordinated by the Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences (CARTSS) and the Institute of Behavioral Science. https://www.colorado.edu/cartss/interdisciplinary-training-social-scienc....