Select Trainings and Colloquia
Recognizing and Remaking Everyday Interactions for Gender Inclusivity (2020-2021)
This five-part workshop series, which is grounded in theories of linguistic anthropology that advance diversity, inclusion, and social justice, provides tips and tools for recognizing and remaking everyday interactions with the goal of achieving greater gender-inclusivity. To do so, the workshops are structured to meet the following three goals: raise individuals’ awareness of (and ability to critically assess) their own language practices; connect these practices with the larger patterns as well as the structures of power and marginalization that they bring in to being; and provide individuals with the tools necessary to recognize and change these practices. Each individual workshop focuses on a specific aspect of everyday language-use and interaction that offer an opportunity to improve interpersonal interactions while also shifting larger systems of power and marginalization with the goal of creating greater gender-inclusivity. (Designed for Academic Audience)
Allyship Training Series (2020-2021)
As businesses take stances in support of social movements, like Black Lives Matter, they effectively position themselves as allies. Allies make the commitment and effort to recognize their privilege and work in solidarity with oppressed groups to enact change in the struggle for justice. This workshop series focuses on general and specific dimensions of allyship, a term that identifies the sets of practices that are undertaken in order to be an ally. Thoughtful and committed allyship can positively impact organizations in a number of ways, not only creating an environment that invites greater diversity and inclusion and employee engagement but also fostering positive images that can increase brand loyalty and achieve broader corporate social responsibility goals. Given the multitude of ways in which potential marginalization persists, and the varied contexts in which exclusion can take place, we can all practice allyship, and consider the role that improved allyship might play within our organizations as well as in wider society. (Designed for Business/Non-Profit Audience)
President’s Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) Women’s Research Colloquium (2021)
Created infrastructure for and organized first day-long virtual Women’s Research Colloquium at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). PCSW’s mission is to ensure that the University responds to the needs of women by removing inequities and providing a supportive educational, working and social environment for all members of the campus community. In line with this mission, the Women’s Research Colloquium is held annually to provide a forum in which CSULB scholars—faculty, staff, and students—can share research done by women and/or related to women’s issues and concerns.
Select Presentations
American Anthropological Association (AAA), Annual Meeting Presenter and Session Organizer November 2023
Presenter in Session titled: “Framing Transitions Along Gender and Sexual Borders.” Paper titled: “A Right to Misgender? The Framing of Free Speech and Gender in Popular and Legal Discourses.” Organizer and Presenter in Workshop titled: “Connecting Ethnographic Methods, Culture, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Work in Organizations.”
Southwestern Anthropological Association (SWAA), Annual Meeting Presenter April 2023
Session title:“Political Activism.” Paper entitled: “Corporate Political Activism in the United States: Considering Responses to Anti-Abortion and Anti-LBGTQ+ Legislation”
National DEI Training Week, Diversity & Leadership Annual Conference Presenter March 2023
Organizer and Presenter in Workshops Titled: “Allyship in Practice” and “Promoting Gender Equity and Inclusivity.”
American Anthropological Association (AAA), Annual Meeting Presenter and Session Organizer November 2022
AAA Featured Practicing Day Workshop titled: “Connecting Ethnographic Methods, Culture, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Work in Organizations.”
American Studies Association (ASA), Annual Meeting Presenter and Session Co-Organizer November 2021
ASA Featured Ethnography Session entitled: “Problems of Diversity: The Politics of Difference Amidst the Rise of Ethnonationalism.” Paper title: “Whiteness as Silence?: Politeness and Impoliteness in the Face of Racist Stance-Taking.”
Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA), Annual Meeting (virtual) Presenter March 2021
Session title: “The Meaning and Productive Inclusion of Difference.” Paper title: “Reimagining Language Centered Models in Diversity and Inclusion Training: Language Acquisition, Socialization, and Metalinguistic Awareness.”
Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA), Annual Meeting (virtual) Presenter March 2020
Session title: “Community Services, Inclusion, and Belonging.” Paper entitled “Building Sociality Through Embodied Interaction: Designing and Implementing A Multiethnic Youth Summer Camp in Rural Bulgaria.”
National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA), Annual Meeting Presenter November 2019
Session title: “Gender, Race, and Politics of Languages.” Paper entitled “Dialog and Debate: The Policing of Self-Other Emotion in the Production of an Educated Feminine Self.’”
American Anthropological Association (AAA), Annual Meeting Presenter and Session Co-Organizer November 2019
Roundtable Session title: “Rethinking Anthropological Pedagogy for Dynamic and Diverse Student Populations.”
Southwestern Anthropological Association (SWAA), Annual Meeting Presenter April 2019
Session title: “Apprehending Gender.” Paper entitled “The Presentation of Politics in Everyday Life: (Re)Examining the Role of Language and Gender Ideologies in Discursive Political Participation in the United States.”
President’s Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW), Annual Symposium Invited Speaker March 2019
Presentation entitled “Considering Language, Gender, and (Your) Everyday Political Conversations”
Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA), Annual Meeting Presenter and Panel Chair March 2019
Session title: “Politics and Democracy in America: An Exploration of Race, Identity, and Voting.” Paper entitled “Structuring Voter Interaction and Disincentivizing Participation.’”· Roundtable Session title: “Anthropology in the Age of Trump: Should We Be Doing Something Differently?”
Anthropological Association (AAA), Annual Meeting
Presenter November 2018
Session title: “Language and the Political Landscape: Creating Authority, Community, and Nationalism.” Paper entitled “Discursive Political Practice and American Democracy.’”
American Anthropological Association (AAA), Annual Meeting
Presenter and Panel Chair December 2017
Session title: “Accountability, Expertise, and Embodiment in Interaction.” Paper entitled
“Authenticity and Persuasion in American Politics: Campaign Volunteers and Discursive
Practice in the Era of ‘Big Data.’”
Language, Interaction, and Social Organization (LISO), Bi-Annual Conference at the
University of California, Santa Barbara Presenter May 2017
Paper entitled “The Use of Overlap and Latching in “Feminine” and “Effective” Discursive
Political Practice: A Case Study in Pennsylvania.”
American Anthropological Association (AAA), Annual Meeting
Presenter November 2015
Session title: “Mediating Forces: Toward a Linguistic Anthropological Understanding of
Constrained Agency.” Paper entitled “Citizen-to-Citizen Political Activism: Contested Discursive
Practices for Effective Political Action in Pennsylvania.” Discussant: Alessandro Duranti (UCLA).
American Anthropological Association (AAA), Annual Meeting
Presenter November 2013
Session title: “Democracy Aesthetics.” Paper entitled “Performing the Political and the Apolitical
as Democratic Participation in the United States.”
Language, Interaction, and Social Organization (LISO), Bi-Annual Conference at the
University of California, Santa Barbara Presenter May 2013
Paper entitled “Stylistic Variation, Authoritative Stance, and the Negotiation of Democratic
Political Action in Western Pennsylvania.”
American Anthropological Association (AAA), Annual Meeting
Presenter November 2011
Session title: “Gossip, Confession, and Innuendo: Family Resemblances, Social Processes, and
Interstitial Linguistic Practices.” Paper entitled “Talking Politics Like A Man: Gendering
Politically Active Women.” Discussant: Niko Besnier (University of Amsterdam).
Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania (ASAO), Annual Meeting
Presenter, Working Session February 2010
Session title: “Villages and their Alters in Melanesian Social Worlds.” Organized by Courtney
Handman and Rupert Stasch. Paper entitled “Married to the Holiday Inn: the Middle Class
Wautogik Diaspora and ‘Villagization’ in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.”