Recently Elise Berman of the UNC Charlotte Department of Anthropology asked colleagues via the LINGANTH email list to recommend recent ethnographies treating language and gender.
I am looking for good ethnographies of language and gender to teach to undergraduates, particularly recent ones (last five years). I was wondering if people would be willing to share their favorites?
Several people responded.
- “Marjorie Goodwin’s 2006 book The Hidden Life of Girls is pretty great.” Daniel Ginsberg
- “Chantal Tetreault’s new book Transcultural Teens, on girls of North African descent in Paris” Galey Modan; also recommended by Erika Hoffman-Dilloway
- “Ayala Fader’s Mitzvah Girls… very teachable” Merav Shohet
- “Rudi Gaudio’s book, Allah Made Us: Sexual Outlaws in an Islamic City” Steven Black
- “Lanita Jacobs-Huey’s From the Kitchen to the Parlor: Language and Becoming in African American Women’s Hair Care” Harriet Ottenheimer
- “Mary Bucholtz’s White Kids” Angela Reyes
- “The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double Dutch to Hip-Hop, by Kyra Gaunt” Mara Green
Norma Mendoza-Denton’s Homegirls: Language and Cultural Practice Among Latina Youth Gangs was also recommended by at least three people – Paul Lai, Jennifer Sclafani, and Angela Reyes.
What recent ethnographies of language and gender would you recommend for undergraduate students in linguistic anthropology?
UPDATE 11/6/2015
More suggestions via LINGANTH:
- Sabrina Billings’ Language, Globalization and the Making of a Tanzanian Beauty Queen (Multilingual Matters, 2014)