Ethnographies of Language and Gender: Resources for Teaching Undergraduate Anthropology

See below for a list of recent ethnographies on language and gender, which will appeal to educators and students of anthropology, particularly at the undergraduate level, as well as to readers with a general interest in linguistic anthropology.

These titles were suggested on the LINGANTH listserv by members of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology, and to make additional suggestions, please email: soclinganth@gmail.com or post your suggestions to LINGANTH. Ethnographies are listed in reverse chronological order of publication.

[UPDATE 11/9/2015: See also suggested titles for recent ethnographies dealing with language socialization on the SLA blog]

Click on the images to learn more about each title.

Manning, P. (2015). Love Stories: Language, Private Love, and Public Romance in Georgia. University of Toronto Press.

Tetreault, C. (2015). Transcultural Teens: Performing Youth Identities in French Cités. John Wiley & Sons.

Billings, S. (2013). Language, Globalization and the Making of a Tanzanian Beauty Queen (Vol. 2). Multilingual Matters.

Jones, L. (2012). Dyke/Girl: Language and Identities in a Lesbian Group. Palgrave Macmillan.

Bucholtz, M. (2011). White Kids: Language, Race, and Styles of Youth Identity. Cambridge University Press.

Gaudio, R. P. (2011). Allah Made Us: Sexual Outlaws in an Islamic African City (Vol. 5). John Wiley & Sons.

LaBennett, O. (2011). She’s Mad Real: Popular Culture and West Indian Girls in Brooklyn. NYU Press.

Fader, A. (2009). Mitzvah Girls: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn. Princeton University Press. 

Goodwin, M. H. (2008). The Hidden Life of Girls: Games of Stance, Status, and Exclusion. John Wiley & Sons.

Mendoza-Denton, N. (2008). Homegirls: Language and Cultural Practice Among Latina Youth Gangs. John Wiley & Sons.

Gaunt, K. D. (2006). The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop. NYU Press.

Inoue, M. (2006). Vicarious Language: Gender and Linguistic Modernity in Japan (Vol. 11). University of California Press.

Jacobs-Huey, L. (2006). From the Kitchen to the Parlor: Language and Becoming in African American Women’s Hair Care. Oxford University Press.

Abu-Lughod, L. (1999). Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. University of California Press.

Kulick, D. (1998). Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes. University of Chicago Press.

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see also:

Motschenbacher, H. (2012). An Interdisciplinary Bibliography on Language, Gender and Sexuality (2000–2011). John Benjamins Publishing.

Holmes, J., & Meyerhoff, M. (Eds.). (2008). The Handbook of Language and Gender (Vol. 25). John Wiley & Sons.

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To make additional suggestions of recent ethnographies on language and gender, please email: soclinganth@gmail.com or post your suggestions to LINGANTH.