| Call Number | 13831 |
|---|---|
| Day & Time Location |
TR 4:10pm-5:25pm 303 Uris Hall |
| Points | 3 |
| Grading Mode | Standard |
| Approvals Required | None |
| Instructor | Ross Perlin |
| Type | LECTURE |
| Method of Instruction | In-Person |
| Course Description | Of the world’s estimated 7,000 languages – representing migrations and historical developments thousands of years old – the majority are oral, little-documented, and increasingly endangered under the onslaught of global languages like English. This course will take the unprecedented, paradoxical linguistic capital of New York City as a lens for examining how immigrants form communities in a new land, how those communities are integrated into the wider society, and how they grapple with linguistic and cultural loss. Interdisciplinary with an experiential learning component, the course will focus on texts, materials, encounters, and fieldwork with three of the city’s newest and least-studied indigenous immigrant communities (indigenous Latin Americans, Himalayans, and Central Asians).Indigeneity, though often invisible or perceived as marginal in global cities like New York, is in fact pervasive and fundamental. Cities now constitute a crucial site for understanding migration and cultural change, with language a vehicle for culture. Studying cultures only in situ (i.e. in their homelands) risks missing a crucial dimension. Students will be immersed in stateless, oral, immigrant cultures while also gaining a hands-on critical understanding of language endangerment and urban sociolinguistic research, first through field experiences and guest speakers (Endangered Language Alliance partners) and then by going out together into communities to work on projects in small teams. The Endangered Language Alliance (ELA), where the instructor is Co-Director, was formed as a non-profit research institute in 2010 as a forum for researchers, community members, activists, artists, and other New Yorkers to come together to support indigenous and minority languages. ELA’s video recordings provide first-hand testimony of endangered languages in the global city – in indigenous languages with English translation – available in few other places. Those texts will be central to this course, supplemented by the new,first-ever, detailed language map of New York City being produced by ELA. |
| Web Site | Vergil |
| Department | Slavic Languages |
| Enrollment | 61 students (60 max) as of 5:06PM Tuesday, April 22, 2025 |
| Status | Full |
| Subject | Linguistics |
| Number | UN3102 |
| Section | 001 |
| Division | Interfaculty |
| Note | Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement |
| Section key | 20243LING3102W001 |