Bambi B. Schieffelin
Collegiate Professor; Professor of AnthropologyPh.D. 1979, M.A. 1977, B.S. 1967, Columbia.
Office Address: Rufus D. Smith Hall 25 Waverly Place New York, NY 10003
Email:
Phone: 212-998-8556
Fax: 212-995-4014
Personal Homepage
Areas of Research/Interest
Linguistic anthropology, language ideology, literacy, language socialization, childhood, missionization, Papua New Guinea, Caribbean.
Publications
Selected articles and book chapters:
2007 Langage et lieu dans l’univers de l’enfance. Anthropologie et Sociétés, 31, 1:15-37.
Found in translating: Reflexive language across time and texts. In Consequences of Contact: Language Ideologies and Sociocultural Transformations in Pacific Societies, ed. M. Makihara and B. B. Schieffelin. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 140-165.
Cultural processes and linguistic mediations: Pacific explorations. In Consequences of Contact: Language Ideologies and Sociocultural Transformations in Pacific Societies, ed. M. Makihara and B. B. Schieffelin. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 3-29. (with M. Makihara).
2008 Speaking only your own mind: Reflections on confession, gossip, and intentionality in Bosavi (PNG). Anthropological Quarterly 81,2:431-441.
Tok bokis, tok piksa: Translating parables in Papua New Guinea. In Social Lives in Language: Sociolinguistics and Multilingual Speech Communities, ed. M. Meyerhoff & N. Nagy. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 111-134.
2009 Enquoting voices, accomplishing talk: Uses of be + like in Instant Messaging. Language & Communication 29,1:77-113. (with G. Jones).
Talking text and talking back: “My bff Jill?” from boob tube to YouTube. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 14, 4: 1050-1079. (with G. Jones).
2010 Anthropological linguistics/Linguistic anthropology: An introduction. In Anthropological Linguistics: Critical Concepts in Language Studies, Volumes I-V, ed. B. B. Schieffelin and P. Garrett. London: Routledge (with P. Garrett), pp 1-10.
2011 When friends who talk together stalk together: Online gossip as metacommunication. In Digital Discourse: Language in the New Media, ed. C. Thurlow & K. Mroczek. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 26-47. (with G. Jones & R. Smith).
The theory of language socialization. In The Handbook of Language Socialization, ed. A, Duranti, E. Ochs, and B. B. Schieffelin. Malden, MA: Wiley- Blackwell, pp 1-21. (with E. Ochs).
Edited Volumes:
2007 Consequences of Contact: Language Ideologies and Sociocultural Transformations in Pacific Societies, ed. M. Makihara and B. B. Schieffelin. New York: Oxford University Press.
2010 Anthropological Linguistics: Critical Concepts in Language Studies, Volumes I-V, ed. B. B. Schieffelin and P. Garrett. London: Routledge.
2011 The Handbook of Language Socialization, ed. A. Duranti, E. Ochs, and B. B. Schieffelin. Malden, MA: Wiley- Blackwell.
Current News / Projects
Updated July 2011
This year saw the publication of two major writing/editing projects. The first, Anthropological Linguistics: Critical Concepts in Language Studies (Routledge 2010) is a five-volume reprint collection. Edited with P. Garrett, our introductory essay is followed by 77 articles in linguistic anthropology that will hopefully inspire interest in this field of study.
The Handbook of Language Socialization (Wiley-Blackwell 2011), edited with A. Duranti and E. Ochs, presents the latest research in this theoretically exciting area through 28 original invited essays, and is introduced by an essay written by Ochs and myself. It should be of interest to scholars in linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, applied linguistics and developmental psychology.
With these two projects completed, I plan to focus on my book project under contract with University of California Press for the series, Anthropology of Christianity. Based on ethnographic and sociolinguistic research in Papua New Guinea, the book analyses the impact of fundamentalist Christian missionization on the linguistic and cultural lives of Bosavi people.
Finally, my fascination with computer-mediated communication continues. Graham Jones, Rachel Smith and I completed a project on the use of IM in Facebook stalking, lurking and creeping by young adult friends.
As visiting professor in Social Anthropology at the National Museum, Rio de Janeiro in August 2010, I was an invited speaker at the conference, “God, the Devil and other people“ and also presented my research on Christianization in a series of seminars. I had the opportunity to meet with other scholars of Christianity and to work collaboratively with Aparecida Vilaça and Joel Robbins on a comparative Melanesia-Amazonia project.
The New York Linguistic Anthropology Working Group, which is collaboratively organized and hosted at NYU, provides a lively forum for scholars to present work in progress. We look forward to continuing our lively meetings and post-meeting exchanges through the coming year. In addition, the Working Group in Urban Sociolinguistics, co-organized by linguistic anthropologists and sociolinguists, and sponsored by New York University, schedules workshops and seminars offered by leading scholars working on language use in urban settings.
