Kathryn Ann Woolard

Professor of Anthropology. Linguistic anthropologist who linked social theory to linguistic practice, conceptualizing research in the political economy of language, showing the effects of social power on everyday usage, and revitalizing work on language and nationalism. Redefined and developed the concept of linguistic ideology as a way of understanding both linguistic change and changes in speakers' understanding of their language practices that feed back into both social and language change. Work in Catalonia tracking changing relationships between legal, governmental arrangements and the acceptance of minority languages over thirty years yielded powerful theoretical conclusions. Research into authority, standardization, and temporality as manifested in language and culture elucidates when and why minoritized languages are restored to general use and how policy can indirectly change identity practices, showing relationship between small-scale changes and larger-scale transformations in conceptions of language and everyday language use. Developed methods for assessing how multilingual speakers' stances towards their languages change and contributed to discussions on public rhetoric and political strategies about minority language.