Bahá’í Chair Discussion: Why Most Humans Talk in Two or More Ways

When:
Fri, Feb 28, 2025 - 1:00PM
to
Fri, Feb 28, 2025 - 3:00PM

Where:
Hoff Theater, Adele H. Stamp Student Union: 3972 Campus Drive College Park, MD 20742

Host:
Maryland Language Science Center and the Baha'i Chair for World Peace

Speakers:
John H. McWhorter

 

Join linguist John McWhorter from Columbia University for a talk and Q&A on why humans speak in multiple ways. The talk, intended for non-specialists, will explore how people worldwide switch dialects, languages, and vocabularies depending on the situation, challenging the assumption that we speak consistently and offering a new perspective on "code-switching."

 

The event will be at the Hoff Theatre in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union at the University of Maryland, College Park. Registration is free and open to the public.

 

Register

 

Speaker Bio: 

John H. McWhorter is an associate professor in the Slavic Department at Columbia University. He earned his B.A. from Rutgers, his M.A. from New York University, and his Ph.D. in linguistics from Stanford. McWhorter is an author of more than twenty books including The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language, Losing the Race: Self Sabotage in Black America and Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English. In 2016 he published Words on the Move: Why English Won't - and Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally), while in 2021 he published Nine Nasty Words and Woke Racism. He also writes a weekly column for The New York Times and hosts the language podcast Lexicon Valley.