Barbara LeMaster

My teaching and research interests are in issues of emergence and maintenance of ethnic, cultural, and gender identities in historical and ethnographic contexts, specifically examining the use of resistance and power in unequal social relationships. This includes an interest in general practices and discourses of social control, the dynamic interaction of disadvantaged people in situations of unequal social relationships. It also includes an interest in the effects of educational language policies on group structure and language use; and, an interest in the expression of gender, ethnicity, and cultural identity through language variation. My work involves descriptive linguistic and sociolinguistic analyses of Deaf sign languages, ethnographies of Deaf communities, and issues of gender socialization in schools. The contexts of my research are primarily in educational and community settings.

Coming soon

ANTH 120: Cultural Anthropology

ANTH/LING 170: An Introduction to Linguistics

ANTH 412: Culture and Communication

ANTH 436: Medical Anthropology

ANTH 501: The History of Anthropology Theory (and Contemporary Theory)

ANTH 530/LING 533: Seminar in Ethnography of Communication

ANTH 630: Seminar in Anthropological Linguistics

ANTH 675: Internship in Applied Anthropology

LING 325: Models of Grammar

LING/ANTH 170: An Introduction to Linguistics

LING 425/ANTH 421: Education Across Cultures

LING/EDEL/EDP 431: Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Schooling

LING 428: Applied Linguistics

LING 470/ANTH & WST 475: Language and Gender

LING 533/ANTH 530: Seminar in Ethnography of Communication

LING 540: Seminar in Sociolinguistics

LeMaster, B., R. Moges, C. Trueblood. 2007. Gendered Phonology, Morphology, and Animacy in American Sign Language. Presented at the International Gender and Language Association (IGALA) meetings in Valencia, Spain in November, 2006; and to be published in the IGALA4 proceedings in 2007.

LeMaster, B. 2006. Language Contraction, Revitalization and Irish Women. In Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 16:2:211-228

LeMaster, B. and L. Monaghan. 2004. “Variation in Sign Languages.” In Alessandro Duranti (Ed.) A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology. Blackwell Press. Pp. 141-166. Reprinted in Monaghan, Leila (editor), Cultural Approach to Interpersonal Communication. 2006: 426-430.

LeMaster, B. 2003. “School Language and Shifts in Irish Deaf Identity.” In Leila Monaghan, Constance Schmaling, Karen Nakamura, and Graham Turner (Eds.), Many Ways to be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press. Pp. 153-172.

LeMaster, B. and M. Hernandez-Katapodis. 2002. Learning to Play School: The Role of Topic in Gendered Discourse Roles among Preschoolers. In Benor, S., Rose, M., Sharma, D., Sweetland, J, and Q. Zhang (eds.). Gendered Practices in Language. Stanford, California: CSLI Publications. Pp. 213-236.