Upcoming Event: Why Most Humans Talk in Two or More Ways

February 28th, 2025

1-3pm

Hoff Theater, Adele H. Stamp Student Union

3972 Campus Drive College Park, MD 20742

Event Abstract

Join linguist John McWhorter from Columbia University for a talk and Q&A on why humans speak in multiple ways. The talk 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." This event is intended for non-specialists and is free and open to the public. The event will be at the Hoff Theatre in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union at the University of Maryland, College Park. This talk is co-sponsored by the Maryland Language Science Center and the Baha'i Chair for World Peace.

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.

Nina-Abbie Temisan Omatsola is an undergraduate student working as a research intern with the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace. She is pursuing a dual major in Psychology and Theatre at the University of Maryland-College Park. Her interests include quality education for all