Date/Time
Date(s) - 02/27/2025
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Location
EIZ Theater - JFSB B192
Category(ies)
The Humanities Center is pleased to welcome Brandon Baird, associate professor of Luso-Hispanic Studies and Linguistics at Middlebury College, as our colloquium speaker on Thursday, February 27 at 3:00 PM in the EIZ Theater (B192 JFSB). His presentation will explore how speaking English with a Spanish accent in the US can trigger negative stereotypes. We hope you will join us for this fascinating presentation. Refreshments will be served.
Title: Hearing race on a single word
Would you call it Texas or Tejas? How about rolling the R in burrito? Speaking with Spanish-accented in English in the US is often perceived in less than favorable ways, including being seen as lazy, dishonest, more likely to commit crimes, and other polemic stereotypes. However, what happens when you only say one word in a Spanish accent? What if that word comes from Spanish? Using an experimental sociophonetic approach, I analyze public perceptions towards Spanish-accented English in order to ask how much or how little of an accent is needed to provoke culturally specific stereotypes and how our social biases can affect others.
About our guest:
Brandon Baird is associate professor of Luso-Hispanic Studies and Linguistics at Middlebury College. His is a scholar of bilingualism, language contact, and sociolinguistics with a focus on Spanish-Mayan bilingualism in Guatemala and Spanish-English bilingualism in the United States, and is co-editor of Linguistic Advances in Central American Spanish (Brill 2023). His scholarly work has appeared in venues such as International Journal of Bilingualism, International Journal of American Linguistics, American Speech, and other anthologies and journals. Beyond academic venues, Dr. Baird has collaborated in the dissemination of research to local schools and state and national radio stations in both Guatemala and the United States.
