Sorry to Bother You: Education and the Disruption of White Cultural and Linguistic Hegemony in the U.S. and South Africa

Thursday, March 21, 2019
4-6 p.m.
O’Hara Student Center Ballroom | 4042 O’Hara Street
Presented by H. Samy Alim, Ph.D.

Presenting data collected over the past 20 years, this talk will highlight how we can disrupt White cultural and linguistic hegemony by developing new paradigms for the study of language, race, and culture in education. Dr. Alim will draw on his research both in the U.S. and South Africa to illustrate how paradigms like ratio linguistics and culturally sustaining pedagogies, among others, can offer a substantive break from mainstream educational thought and help move us towards educational justice.

Dr. Alim is the David O. Sears Presidential Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences and Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Founding Director of the Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Language. His most recent books include Raciolinguistics: How Language Shapes Our Ideas about Race (Oxford, 2016, with John Rickford & Arnetha Ball) and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Teaching and Learning for Justice in a Changing World (Teachers College Press, 2017, with Django Paris). For two decades, Alim has worked with schools and community organizations across the U.S. to theorize and enact new pedagogies. His most recent research explores the development of organic culturally sustaining pedagogies in international contexts (Spain & South Africa).

He is author of Articulate While Black: Barack Obama, Language, and Race in the U.S. (Oxford, 2012, with Geneva Smitherman) and has written extensively about Black Language and Hip Hop Culture in several books throughout the years. Prior to UCLA, Alim taught at Stanford University, where he directed African & African American Studies and the Institute for Diversity in the Arts.

This event is free and open to the public, though registration is appreciated. A reception will follow the lecture.
Stay tuned for information about our Reflection into Action event to be scheduled the week after Dr. Alim’s lecture.

Click here to learn more and to register.