Talks

ELA researchers frequently visit schools and colleges to give presentations on cultural and linguistic diversity, mulitilingualism, linguistics, specific languages, and ELA’s work in New York City, among other topics. We have presented at middle schools, high schools, and a wide range of colleges and universities from Sarah Lawrence to Yale to the University of London. ELA linguists, many of whom also have permanent faculty positions, have also taught full-length courses at Columbia, NYU, CUNY, Rutgers, and many other schools. Co-Director Ross Perlin’s new Columbia course “Endangered Languages in the Global City” launched in fall 2019.

Nowhere is New York’s linguistic diversity better represented than in our public school system. According to one estimate, New York City’s public school students speak over 185 languages at home and a wide range of dual-language programs are flourishing across the city.

ELA has long been hosting and visiting local high school and colleges — over the past three years, we’ve particularly proud to help shape unique new classes, such as “Multilingual NYC” at the iSchool, an NYC public school in SoHo. Working with 25 high school students and their teacher Katy Barber, we formed the (very multilingual) students into neighborhood survey teams. From the Bengali Bronx to Mixtec and Yemeni Arabic in Harlem, the students created fantastic maps and conducted interviews.

If your school might be interested, please get in touch!