Communication is an important skill to develop, especially for young adolescents endeavoring to advocate for themselves in different social contexts. Young offenders have been identified as a group of adolescents who have a higher proportion of language deficits than the general population, making it more difficult for them to maneuver a legal system heavily focused on language capacities. Research has shown that children with language disorders have more impoverished narratives than those without language disorders. There is limited information about how language disorders affect incarcerated youth in the United States, therefore it is important to collect local data to be able to provide appropriate support. We hypothesize that adolescents in the juvenile justice system will have a higher prevalence of language disorders than the general population. The first step is to examine the oral language characteristics and prevalence of language disorders in local adolescents, both those incarcerated and those in the general population. Persuasive narrative samples were collected and analyzed with the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software. The persuasive narrative is a relevant language measure for this population as it mirrors the requirement to tell a story and persuade an authority figure. This research works to further develop our understanding of the communication needs of juveniles and how they should be supported. This project aims to develop a normative sample for our region (San Diego, CA) and to explore where we may find patterns of difficulties in constructing persuasive narratives.

In the Summer of 2021, a group of Black dancers and choreographers on TikTok organized and staged a strike by refusing to release choreography for the recently released song “Thot Shit!” by Megan Thee Stallion. The strike existed in response to a majority of the popular choreographic content on TikTok being choreographed by black people while white TikTok users benefit the most, through monetary gain and engagement. I focus on what this event and black dance on TikTok generally can tell us about neoliberalism and commodification. Additionally, I investigate the utility of framing the event as a labor strike within the context of antiblackness, situate black TikTok dance within a history of Black performance and its politics, and imagine the potential futures of black dance on TikTok. My motivating questions include what motivated black TikTok users to organize and carry out the #BlackTikTokStrike of dates? Given a historical precedent of black dance being appropriated by non black dancers, how does the #BlackTikTokStrike relate to a history of black performance and racial power dynamics in the United States? TikTok is an unregulated, highly commodified, and antiblack infrastructure characterized by wage inequality. #BlackTikTokStrike highlights this inequality and turns our attention to TikTok as an emerging realm of struggle within capitalism.

The purpose of this study is to look at how students from historically marginalized groups perceive linguistic profiling and how that influences code switching in a traditional higher educational setting. Through semi-structured interviews with 18 students currently enrolled at a four-year institution, this study demonstrates the link between language use and identity shaping to ensure educational acceptance and success. In institutional settings where English is the hegemonic language, I investigate how language use and speech differences such as slang, dialects, and accents contribute to acceptance or oppression. Looking at raciolinguistic ideologies, which is the study of how race and language are co-naturalized, I am interested in how these ideologies manifest in how we perceive people and their language use. This study demonstrates that, converting linguistic discrimination into linguistic capital in educational settings is critical to students' success not only academically, but also professionally and socially. Being aware of one's language skills refers to the notion of shaping one's identity through language variations. Various discussions, including researchers and well-known linguists' ideas, demonstrate the importance of language as a cultural tool for navigating society at large, as well as the consequences for individuals who are unable to use their language variation due to raciolinguistic ideologies. Following an in-depth analysis and discussion, this study will help to end the stigma associated with language variation other than white standardized English in higher education and normalize language use as an indicator of an individual's identity and belonging.

Although the Mapuche are the largest group of Native peoples in South America, the group's language is mainly spoken, and very little exists in writing. Professors at the University of Buenos Aires are currently working closely with Mapuche elders and academics to create an official script that will allow their oral histories, mythologies, and stories to be preserved and understood by greater Argentina. This research systematically analyzes and addresses the importance of access to the written word, while acknowledging that writing is a colonial technology. The power of writing is called into question as it challenges orality along with other traditional forms of expression including visual art, music, and dance. Aware that the absence of access to written expressions has been key to colonizing spaces and people, this study aims to investigate the privilege assigned to the written word, as it is itself a ruler used to judge whether one is deemed “civilized” by Western standards. Indigenous peoples have been historically oppressed, and their stories have been continually erased. This study exposes the roots of white supremacy, found beneath the written word, and amplifies the indigenous voice by highlighting the importance of preserving orality within Mapuche writing.