 |
Geneva Smitherman is a University Distinguished Professor Emerita of English and co-founder of the African American and African Studies doctoral program at Michigan State University. [1] [2] Smitherman co-founded the first public African-centered elementary school in the country Malcolm X Academy within the Detroit Public Schools. [3] She is also known as "Dr. G" and "Dr. Smitherman". [2]
The oldest of seven children in Brownsville, Tennessee, Smitherman started her education in a one-room schoolhouse. [2] Her family moved from the rural south to the urban north as part of the Great African American migration, first living in Chicago for a few years and then moving to Detroit. [2] She studied at and graduated from Detroit's Cass Technical High School [3] and earned a B.A. and M.A. in English and Latin from Wayne State University and a PhD in English, with a specialization in sociolinguistics and education, from the University of Michigan. [4]
In 1971, she was among the original faculty members of Harvard University's “Afro-American Studies”. [2] In addition to working at Michigan State University in the Department of English and co-founding MSU's African American and African Studies, Smitherman has been active in advocating for African American children's education. [3]
In the late 1970s, she worked as an expert witness and advocate in the federal court case, Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School Children et al. v. Ann Arbor School District. [5] A key claim in the Ann Arbor Decision recognized Black English as a language and established that the Ann Arbor School District violated federal statutory law because it failed to take into account this home language in the provision of education. The judge ordered the school district to find a way to identify Black English speakers in the schools and to "use that knowledge in teaching such students how to read standard English". [6]
Smitherman’s book, Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America, published in 1977 by Wayne State University Press in Detroit, Michigan, contributed to shifting public and academic perspectives towards the value of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). This work has been widely referenced by teachers, legal scholars, sociologists, and policy analysts. [7]
In 1991, Smitherman, Clifford Watson, and many Detroit parents established the Malcolm X Academy, an African-centered, predominantly male, Pre-K-8 school within the Detroit Public Schools. It was the first public African-centered elementary school in the country. [3]
Smitherman is author and editor/co-editor of 15 books and monographs and over 125 articles, essays, and published opinion pieces. [2]
Liberian English refers to the varieties of English spoken in Liberia. There are four such varieties:
Metro Detroit is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and over 200 municipalities in the surrounding area with its largest employer being Oakland County. There are varied definitions of the area, including the official statistical areas designated by the Office of Management and Budget, a federal agency of the United States.
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is a United States professional organization dedicated to "improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education. Since 1911, NCTE has provided a forum for the profession, an array of opportunities for teachers to continue their professional growth throughout their careers, and a framework for cooperation to deal with issues that affect the teaching of English." In addition, the NCTE describes its mission as follows:
The Council promotes the development of literacy, the use of language to construct personal and public worlds and to achieve full participation in society, through the learning and teaching of English and the related arts and sciences of language.
The Conference on College Composition and Communication is a national professional association of college and university writing instructors in the United States. The CCCC formed in 1949 as an organization within the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). CCCC is the largest organization dedicated to writing research, theory, and teaching worldwide.
Naomi Long Madgett was an American poet and publisher. Originally a teacher, she later found fame with her award-winning poems and was also the founder and senior editor of Lotus Press, established in 1972, a publisher of poetry books by black poets. Known as "the godmother of African-American poetry", she was the Detroit poet laureate since 2001.
Gabriel Richard was a French Roman Catholic priest who ministered to the French Catholics in the parish of Sainte Anne de Détroit, as well as Protestants and Native Americans living in Southeast Michigan. He established schools, a library, and vocational training with weaving looms. After Detroit was nearly destroyed by a fire in 1805, he and others created a new layout for the city. His motto following the fire, Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus is inscribed on the Seal of the City of Detroit.
Kenneth Goodman was Professor Emeritus, Language Reading and Culture, at the University of Arizona. He is best known for developing the theory underlying the literacy philosophy of whole language.
Forest Hill Cemetery is a 65-acre (260,000 m2) cemetery at 415 Observatory Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was designed by James Lewis Glenn and opened in 1857.
Keith Gilyard is a writer and American professor of English and African American Studies. He has passionately embraced African American expressive culture over the course of his career as a poet, scholar, and educator. Beyond his own literary output, he has pursued – and in some instances merged - two main lines of humanistic inquiry: literary studies, with its concern for beauty and significant form, and rhetorical studies, with its emphasis on the effect of trope and argument in culture. Moreover, his interests branch out into popular culture, civic discourse, and educational praxis. A critical perspective concerning these areas is, in his view, integral to the development of discerning and productive publics both on and beyond campuses and therefore crucial to the optimal practice of democracy.
African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) has been the center of controversy about the education of African-American youths, the role AAVE should play in public schools and education, and its place in broader society.
Henry Philip Tappan was an American philosopher, educator and academic administrator. He is officially considered the first president of the University of Michigan.
Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) serves the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan and parts of eight surrounding townships covering 125 square miles (320 km2). The district operates 20 elementary schools, 2 K-8 schools, 6 middle schools, 4 comprehensive high schools, 1 alternative high school, 3 preschools and 1 adult education program; the district maintains 640 acres (2.6 km2) of real estate and 3,300,000 square feet (310,000 m2) of building space. The Ann Arbor Public Schools is the 8th largest school district among 555 districts in Michigan. The district is one of the best in Michigan, and it has a statewide reputation for academic excellence.
Alvin Bernard Aubert was a professor of English, poet, playwright, editor, literary critic, and scholar who championed African-American culture and rural life along the southern Mississippi River. He grew up in Lutcher, Louisiana, and attended Southern University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Illinois. He taught at Southern University, SUNY Fredonia,University of Oregon, and Wayne State University. At WSU he was a professor of English, taught creative writing and Afro-American literature, while serving as Interim Chair of the Department of Africana Studies. He founded and edited the award winning journal Obsidian, now Obsidian II, for publishing works in English by, and about, writes of African descent worldwide. He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in literature (1955), and a Bread Loaf Scholar in poetry (1968). His poems, articles, and reviews have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies, including regular reviews of Afro-American poetry books in Cornell University's "Epoch" magazine. His play, "Home From Harlem," was staged at WSU's Bonstelle Theatre in 1986, and in 1991 he completed his play, "Piney Brown." He served as an advisory editor to literary magazines and served on grants panels for New York's Creative Artist Public Service Program (CAPS), the National Endowment for the Arts, the Coordinating Council for Literary Magazines (CCLM), the Kentucky Arts Council, and the Detroit City Arts Council. He was a member of the College Language Association, the Black Theatre Network, and the Langston Hughes Society.
The LGBT community in Metro Detroit is centered in Ferndale, Michigan, as of 2007. As of 1997, many LGBT people live in Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, and Royal Oak. Model D stated in 2007 that there are populations of gays and lesbians in some Detroit neighborhoods such as East English Village, Indian Village, Lafayette Park, and Woodbridge and that the concentration of gay bars in Detroit is "decentralized".
Willis Charles Patterson is an American bass-baritone, editor, music arranger, and professor emeritus/longtime Associate Dean of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. A Fulbright Scholar and the winner of the Marian Anderson Award, he has performed in opera houses and concert halls internationally. He has served as president of the National Association of Negro Musicians and as executive secretary of the National Black Music Caucus. In 1977, he edited what The New York Times described as a "groundbreaking anthology of black art songs."
Raciolinguistics examines how language is used to construct race and how ideas of race influence language and language use. Although sociolinguists and linguistic anthropologists have previously studied the intersections of language, race, and culture, raciolinguistics is a relatively new focus for scholars trying to theorize race throughout language studies. Geneva Smitherman credits H. Samy Alim for the coinage of the new term, discussed at length in the 2016 book by Alim, John R. Rickford and Arnetha F. Ball which compiled raciolinguistic research. In their work, raciolinguists incorporate intersectionality in theorizing how various identities within a group and/or an individual influence lived experiences of race. Nelson Flores and Jonathan Rosa also used the term in their discussion of "appropriateness" in American language and education.
Alleen Pace Nilsen is an American literary scholar, linguist, and one of the pioneers of both humor studies and children's literature studies. She is Professor Emeritus in the Department of English at Arizona State University, where she was previously the director of the English Education Program. Together with her husband Don Nilsen, she co-founded the International Society for Humor Studies.
Sonja L. Lanehart is an American linguist and professor of linguistics in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Arizona who has advanced the study of language use in the African American community. Her work as a researcher, author, and editor includes African American English, education, literacy, identity, language variation, women's languages, intersectionality, and inclusivity within the African American community. Lanehart's sociolinguistic orientation prioritizes language as a phenomenon influenced by sociocultural and historical factors. She also utilizes the perspectives of Critical Race Theory and Black feminism in her work. Lanehart was the Brackenridge Endowed Chair in Literature and Humanities at the University of Texas at San Antonio from 2006 to 2019, and was selected by the Linguistic Society of America as a 2021 Fellow.
Victor Villanueva is an American academic and scholar in rhetoric and composition studies, serving the role of Regents Professor Emeritus at Washington State University. Villanueva was awarded NCTE's David Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English for his groundbreaking book Bootstraps, From an American Academic of Color. In 2009, Villanueva was the recipient of the Conference on College Composition and Communication Exemplar's Award. Villanueva has written and edited a number of significant works on the topic of race, rhetoric, basic writing, and the social and political contexts of literacy education.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
