How You Say It: How Speech Structures our Lives and World
Katherine D. Kinzler is a Professor of Psychology and Deputy Dean in the Division of the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago. A Fulbright Scholar at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, Professor Kinzler was named a “Young Scientist” — one of 50 scientists under age 40 recognized by the World Economic Forum. She writes for the New York Times and is the author of How You Say It: Why You Talk the Way You Do and What it Says About You.
Overview
We gravitate toward people like us; it’s human nature. Race, class and gender shape our social identities, and thus who we perceive as “like us” or “not like us.” But one overlooked factor can be even more powerful: the way we speak. Your accent alone can determine the economic opportunity or discrimination you encounter in life, making speech one of the most urgent social-justice issues of our day. In this class, Professor Kinzler will draw on her own research in developmental and social psychology, and also on broader evidence from linguistics, economics, and the law, to examine how language dominates our mindsets and behaviors. She will discuss how speech not only causes some of our deepest social divides, but also how exposure to different languages can bring us together.