Linguistic Anthropology
Linguistic and semiotic anthropology have been a vital part of the anthropological intellectual tradition, and one in which the Anthropology Department at Stanford has had historic strength. Linguistic anthropology examines language in social and cultural practices and contexts. Ethnographies of language operate across multiple scales, from local face to face interaction to the circulation of discourse throughout regional and global networks. Anthropologists at Stanford are especially interested in the boundaries and connections between ostensibly linguistic and non-linguistic phenomena, researching new media platforms, digital and media technologies, formations of mass politics and power structures, language learning and identity in education, ethnoracial and linguistic borders, and religious networks and practices. Closely aligned with the critical theory tradition, linguistic anthropology at Stanford offers theoretical and methodological tools to investigate the constitutive and performative role of language in the formation of different identities and social relationships, as well as the production and reproduction of ideologies and power relations.