The Northern Plains Ethics Institute at NDSU and the YWCA Cass Clay have announced Kelly Elizabeth Wright, doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan, will be the Learning the Language of Diversity and Meaningful Inclusion program’s April speaker.

Wright is scheduled to participate in the conversation series on Monday, April 19, at noon Central Time via Zoom. Her presentation, “Unpacking and Confronting Linguistic Racism,” will begin the program, followed by moderated conversation and audience questions.

In her talk, Wright will provide a historical, sociolinguistic account of linguistic racism in the United States by cataloguing how it manifests in the founding documents of the nation. Attendees will learn about the ramifications of the defaulting of White mainstream English by considering the process of naturalization, U.S. educational histories and failures of the legal system.

Wright will share contemporary examples of linguistic racism from her research on media representations of Black athletes and voice-based discrimination in the housing market.

Wright's research focuses on the link between linguistic production and perception. She applies mixed methodologies, including machine learning, massive corpora studies, perceptual and cognitive experimentation and quantitative phonetic and qualitative sociolinguistic analyses. Wright is developing her dissertation on racio-linguistic ideologies and Black professional speech.

Wright earned her associate degree from Pellissippi State Community College, bachelor’s degree from Maryville College and master’s degree in linguistic theory and typology from the University of Kentucky.

The event, which is open to the public, is provided free of charge by the Northern Plains Ethics Institute; NDSU Office of the President; the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; the YWCA Cass Clay, Humanities ND; and the Department of Anthropology and Sociology.

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