Office of Institutional Diversity Equity & Inclusion OIDEI

"Language: The Missing Link in Discussions of Privilege and Prejudice" A discussion with Shawna Shapiro

In this interactive presentation, we will consider the role that language plays in perpetuating social inequality, including at Middlebury. We will also reflect on how we can change our linguistic practices in order to shift the power dynamics on our campus and in the classroom. I will first introduce several concepts from sociolinguistics that help us understand how language and privilege/power are interconnected. We will then explore how those concepts apply to a variety of communicative situations, including our own interpersonal interactions.

Virtual Middlebury