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keywords: race; intersectionality; social class; african american

Professor Morgan earned both her B.A. and her M.A. degrees at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She obtained an additional M.A. at the University of Essex, England and her PhD through the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include: 1) Urban speech communities: identity, migration, interaction, language use, discourse styles, urban youth language, verbal performance, hip-hop culture; 2) The African Diaspora: continuity and innovation in language and communication styles of peoples of African descent residing in the Americas and throughout the African Diaspora; 3) language, culture and identity: how language both constitutes and works in the construction of gender, national and other group identities, especially in urban areas; 4) Discourse strategies: intentionality and responsibility in discourse; construction of gender in discourse and narrative style and; language socialization; 5) verbal performance: in urban African Diaspora speech communities with special emphasis on African American toasts, signifying and hiphop; 6) hiphop language and culture; 7) language and education: language policy and planning regarding social class varieties and African American English in the US , literacy instruction, language education policy and programs for bilingual creole language speakers.

Marcyliena Morgan has conducted field research on the African Diaspora, identity and language in the USA, England and the Caribbean. She has received major grants from the Ford Foundation, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She is the author of many publications that focus on youth, gender, language, culture, identity, sociolinguistics, discourse and interaction, including Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and the forthcoming book The Real Hiphop - Battling for Knowledge, Power, and Respect in the Underground (Duke University Press, 2008). Professor Morgan founded the Hiphop Archive at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University in 2002. Professor Morgan teaches classes on hip hop, the ethnography of communications, representation in the media, language and identity, race, class and gender.

EDUCATION

Current Position

Professor 2008 - present
Department of African and African American Studies
Harvard University

Positions Held

Founding Director, Hiphop Archive
The Department of Afro-American Studies
W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research
Harvard University

Associate Professor 2005 - 2007
Department of Communication
Stanford University

Associate Professor 2002 - 2005
Director, Hip Hop Archive
The Department of African and African American Studies
W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research
Harvard University

Visiting Associate Professor, 1999-2001
Graduate School of Education, Harvard University

Associate Professor (with tenure) 1996 – 2002
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
Chair, African American Studies Program 1996
University of California, Los Angeles

Assistant Professor July 1990 - June 1996
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles

Professor of Linguistics (Visiting), Center for African Studies, St. Hughes College - Oxford Summer 1990

Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Pomona College

Instructor of Linguistics, Graduate School of Education,
University of Pennsylvania, 1980 - 1985

Lecturer, English Program for Foreign Students,
University of Pennsylvania 1981 - 1984

Lecturer, Black Studies Program,
University of Illinois at Chicago, 1974 - 1976

Instructor, Interpersonal Communications and Public Speaking,
Department of Speech Communications, Northern Illinois University 1972 and 1977

MAJOR RESEARCH INTERESTS

1) Urban speech communities: identity, migration, interaction, language use, discourse styles, urban youth language, verbal performance, hip-hop culture; 2) The African Diaspora: continuity and innovation in language and communication styles of peoples of African descent residing in the Americas and throughout the African Diaspora; 3) language, culture and identity: how language both constitutes and works in the construction of gender, national and other group identities, especially in urban areas; 4) Discourse strategies: intentionality and responsibility in discourse; construction of gender in discourse and narrative style and; language socialization; 5) verbal performance: in urban African Diaspora speech communities with special emphasis on African American toasts, signifying and rap; 5) language and education: language policy and planning regarding social class varieties and African American English in the US , literacy instruction, language education policy and programs for bilingual creole language speakers.

FIELD RESEARCH

USA

Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Jackson, Mississippi and rural Mississippi. Research in these areas include Hiphop culture, African American women’s intergenerational language practices, the relation between women’s rural and urban migration and language use (Mississippi and Chicago), social class and language use in the African American community (Philadelphia), expressions of class and status (all), the development of the hip hop nation in the US and worldwide, language as a constitutive feature of hip hop, the construction of gender in the hip hop nation, literacy and bilingual literacy programs and curriculum (Philadelphia), African American English planning and policy (U.S.).

ENGLAND

Intergenerational study of language, discourse and interaction of mainly African Caribbean women. Focus is on continuity and innovation and the expression of home and identity. Adolescent organizations around US rap and hiphop styles.

CARIBBEAN

Jamaica: Female relatives and friends of women from intergenerational London study on language use and the expression of home and identity. Cuba: Hiphop as a form of resistance and representation in Cuba.

HIPHOP

Founding Director of the Hiphop Archive. The purpose of the current project is to identify and build on the theories of knowledge that have developed within the hiphop community. Interested in research and work with groups, organizations and students on Hiphop knowledge based programs, initiatives and research activities, events and acquire material culture associated with Hiphop in the U.S. and throughout the world.

PUBLICATIONS

Books:

Forthcoming. The Real Hiphop: Battling for Knowledge, Power, and Respect in the Underground. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press (in press).

Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (2002)

(Editor) Language and the Social Construction of Identity in Creole Situations. Los Angeles: Center for African American Studies. (1994)

Articles and Chapters:

Forthcoming. The Presentation of Indirectness in Everyday Life. Journal of Pragmatics

2007 When and Where We Enter: Social Context and Desire in Women’s Discourse.

Journal of Gender and Language Vol. 1.1:119-129.

2006. Getting Off of Black Women’s Back: Love Her or Leave Her Alone. Du Bois Review, 3.2:1-18.

2005 “Shredding the Veil: Race and Class in Popular Feminist Identity” South Atlantic Quarterly 104.3

2004 “Speech Community” in A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology. S. Duranti (ed.) Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

2004. “I’m every woman”: Black women’s (dis)placement in women’s language study

In Mary Bucholtz (ed.) Robin Tolmach Lakoff, Language and Woman’s Place: Text and Commentaries, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press.

2003 “Hard Women, Soft Politics and Radical Chic in Hip-Hop”. Margaret Mead’s Legacy: Continuing Conversations. The Scholar & Feminist Online1.2

2003. Signifying Laughter & the Subtleties of Loud-Talking: Memory & Meaning in African American Women’s Discourse In Marcia Farr, (Ed.). Ethnolinguistic Chicago: Language and Literacy In Chicago’s Neighborhoods. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Pub. (Pages 51-76)

2001 “Ain’t Nothin’ But A G Thang”: Grammar, Variation and Language Ideology in Hip Hop Identity” In Sonja Lanehart Ed. African American Vernacular English. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pp. 185-207).

2001 “The African American Speech Community - Reality and Sociolinguistics”. In Alessandro Duranti (ed.) Linguistic Anthropology: A Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pp. 74-94. (reprint)

2001. Community. In Alessandro (ed.) Key Terms in Language and Culture. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pp. 31-33. (reprint)

2000. Community. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 9 (1): 33-35.

2000 “Here Come the Drum”: Discursive “Shout-Outs” to the Ancestors. The Black Scholar. Fall-Winter 30(3-4):44-50.

2000. Out of the Mouths of Slaves: African American Language and Educational Malpractice. By John Baugh. Austin: University of Texas Press. Language and Society 30:1.130-133. (review article)

1999 African American Vernacular English: Features, Evolution, Educational Implications. By John R. Rickford. Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell Publishers, 1999. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages (review article).

1999. US Language Planning and Policies for Social Dialect Speakers. In Thom Huebner and Kathryn Davis (Eds.) Sociopolitical Perspectives on Language Policy and Planning in the USA. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins pp. 173-191.

1999 “No Woman No Cry”: Claiming African American Women’s Place. Reinventing Identities: From Category to Practice in Language and Gender (Editors) Bucholtz, A. C. Liang, Laurel A. Sutton. Oxford: Oxford University Press pp. 27-45.

1998 “More Than A Mood or An Attitude”: Discourse and Verbal Genres in African American Culture. In African American English: Structure, History and Usage (Editors) Salikoko Mufwene, John Rickford, Guy Bailey, John Baugh. London: Routledge pp. 251-281.

1998 Blacked Out: Dilemmas of Race, Identity and Success at Capital High. By Signithia Fordham Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 29,3:377-378. (Review article)

1997 UCLA Today: “The Oakland Decision” (editorial)

1997 “Race and Language”. AAA Newsletter (editorial)

1996 Conversational Signifying: Grammar and Indirectness Among African American Women. In Grammar and Interaction (Editors) Elinor Ochs, Emanuel Schegloff and Sandra Thompson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press pp. 405-434.

1996. “Redefining “Language in The Inner City”: Adolescents, Media and Urban Space”. Salsa IV:14-26.

1994. “No Woman No Cry: The Linguistic Representation of African American Women”. Cultural Performances (editors) Mary Bucholtz, A.C. Liang, Laurel A. Sutton and Caitlin Hines. Berkeley: Berkeley Women and Language Group pp. 525-541.

1994. “Theoretical and Political Arguments in African American English”. Annual Review of Anthropology. Vol. 23:325-45.

1994. “The African American Speech Community - Reality and Sociolinguistics” In Language and the Social Construction of Identity in Creole Situations (editor) M. Morgan. Los Angeles: CAAS Publications pp.121-148.

1993. “The Africanness of counterlanguage among Afro-Americans” In Africanisms in Afro-American Language Varieties. (ed.) S. Mufwene. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press pp. 423-35.

1993. The Death of Black English: Divergence and Convergence in Black and White Vernaculars. (review article) Journal of Pidgin & Creole Linguistics 8.2:241-251.

1991. “Indirectness and Interpretation in African American Women’s Discourse”. Pragmatics 1.4:421-51.

Commentaries

2007 When and Where We Enter: Social Context and Desire in Women’s Discourse.

Journal of Gender and Language Vol. 1.1:119-129.

2005 “After…Word! The Philosophy of the Hip-Hop Battle.” In Derrick Darby and Tommie

Shelby (Eds.) Hip Hop & Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason. Chicago: Open Court.

Harvard University

Department of African
and African American Studies

Barker Center, 2nd Floor
12 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

Phone: 617-496-8885
Fax: 617-496-2871
Email: mmorgan@fas.harvard.edu

Rm.300H McClatchy Hall
(650) 723-5448
mmorgan2@stanford.edu
Professor Morgan’s Homepage

Hiphop Archive @ Stanford Homepage

Office hours: By appointment

Marcyliena Morgan’s research focuses on youth, gender, language, culture and identity, sociolinguistics, discourse and interaction. Professor Morgan teaches courses on hiphop, discourse, language and identity, race, class and gender, the ethnography of communications, and representation in the media. She is the author of, Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture (2002) and Editor of Language and the Social Construction of Identity in Creole Situations (1994). Her other publications include articles and chapters on gender and women’s speech, language ideology, discourse and interaction among Caribbean women in London and Jamaica, urban youth language and interaction, hip hop culture, and language education planning and policy.

Professor Morgan is the Executive Director of Stanford’s Hiphop Archive. She founded the Hiphop Archive at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University while on the faculty in African American Studies. She is currently completing a book on hiphop culture entitled The Real Hiphop - Battling for Knowledge, Power, and Respect in the Underground .

The Hiphop Archive was officially established in 2002 under the direction of Marcyliena Morgan. Since the early 1970s, Hiphop has become the most influential artistic, educational and social movement for youth and young adults. From The Hiphop Archive’s inception, students, faculty, artists, staff and other participants in Hiphop culture have been committed to supporting and establishing a new type of research and scholarship devoted to the knowledge, art, culture, materials, organizations, movements and institutions developed by those who support and follow Hiphop. In response to this movement The Hiphop Archive organizes and develops collections, initiates and participates in research activities, sponsors events and acquires material culture associated with Hiphop in the U.S. and throughout the world.

It is now 30 years since its entrance onto the urban landscape and Hiphop continues to be supported, protected and scrutinized by those who created it. In the process, it has become an uncompromising prism for critique, social and political analysis and representation of marginalized and underrepresented communities throughout the world. The Hiphop Archive curates all forms of Hiphop material culture including recordings, videos, web sites, films, original papers, works, references, productions, conferences, meetings, interviews, publications, research, formal proceedings, etc. Material is collected according to particular themes and research initiatives. While the Archive is a record of Hiphop activity locally, nationally and internationally, it also incorporates all of the activities that have developed within and in response to Hiphop. These include academic courses, arts and community organizations, underground performances and venues, spoken word, political organizations, religious programs and much more.

The Hiphop Archive’s mission is to facilitate and encourage the pursuit of knowledge, art, culture and responsible leadership through Hiphop. We are uncompromising in our commitment to build and support intellectually challenging and innovative scholarship that both reflects the rigor and achievement of performance in Hiphop and transforms our thinking and our lives. Toward these goals, our Website: hiphoparchive.org provides information about all activities and projects and serves as a resource for those interested in knowing, developing, building, maintaining and representing Hiphop.

Hiphop is a global phenomenon that influences social and cultural life far beyond the music and entertainment industries. As such, it is poised to make a lasting impression on our understanding of African American, Latino, working class and general American youth character, identity and culture. Yet beyond descriptions and critiques of its mass appeal, few have considered Hiphop’s development of standards and evaluations across all artistic areas and culture. Moreover, the consequences of an audience trained in the changing standards of Hiphop and charged with upholding them, has not been thoroughly explored. This course provides a critical examination of Hiphop in the US and its role as a communicative, linguistic, cultural, political and artistic resource. Hiphop America is taught from the perspective of cultural and linguistic anthropology. The main focus of the course is discourse, language and symbolism and the importance and development of critical evaluation and standards of assessment. Each lecture topic will include study questions and activities. The special topic for this year is: WOMEN IN HIPHOP.

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