Maggie Ronkin

Curriculum Vitae

Teaching

Resources for Students

Short Writing Samples

Forensic Consulting

Family

Contact

MS, PhD Sociolinguistics

Georgetown University

2008-2009 Courses—Department of Anthropology, Oberlin College

Fall 2007 Course—Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University

The Ethnographic Analysis of Speaking, an introduction to verbal performance and its analysis using Richard Bauman’s Story, Performance, and Event and Deborah Tannen’s Framing in Discourse. Self-designed, upper-level, seminar-style course included in the University’s Writing-in-the-Disciplines and performance studies initiatives (17 students).

Spring 2007 Courses—Department of Asian Studies, University of Texas at Austin

Language and Society in South Asia, a self-designed, upper-level, seminar-style course cross-listed in Asian Studies and Anthropology (10 students).

Introduction to India, a gateway course cross-listed in Asian Studies, Anthropology, History, and Religious Studies (70 students). Emphasis on 19th and 20th century history, culture, and the politics of identity, using David Ludden’s India and South Asia: A Short History.

Summary of Courses Taught and TAd before 2008

* A contemporary introduction to the human capacity for language, phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics-pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and discourse analysis.

Academic Information

Dissertation: Arguing Moral Identity: Represented Speech and Positioning in a Pakistani Woman’s Narratives. Successfully defended August 27, 2008.

Qualifying Papers on Language Ideologies: The Tamil Language Movement in India (1); Mock Ebonics: Linguistic Racism in Parodies of Ebonics on the Internet (2).

Participant, National Science Foundation-sponsored Institute on Methods in Linguistic Anthropology, Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, 1999.

Participant, Berkeley Urdu Language Program in Pakistan, University of California, Berkeley, 2000 and 1986 (graduate certificates).

Work in Progress

Special Volume

Ronkin, Maggie and Amy C. Bard. In preparation. Constructing Islam and Gender in Urdu Texts and Practices (Papers from the 35th Annual South Asia Conference at the University of Wisconsin). To be submitted for review to Gender and Language (London: Equinox Publishing).

Publications

Special Volume

Alatis, James E., Carolyn Straehle, and Maggie Ronkin, eds. 1997. Aspects of Sociolinguistics in Greece. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 126. Joshua Fishman, general editor. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Co-edited Volumes

Alatis, James E., Carolyn Straehle, Maggie Ronkin, and Brent Gallenberger, eds. 1996. Linguistics, Language Acquisition, and Language Variation: Current Trends and Future Prospects. Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 1996. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Alatis, James E., Carolyn Straehle, Brent Gallenberger, and Maggie Ronkin, eds. 1996. Linguistics and the Education of Language Teachers: Ethnolinguistic, Psycholinguistic, and Sociolinguistic Aspects. Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 1995. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Articles: First or Sole Author

Ronkin, Maggie. 2006. “Interrogating Power Upside Down: Literal and Hypothetical Worlds in Narration.” Language and Linguistics in South Asia: Selected Papers from SALA 24 (working title). Kamal K. Sridhar and Shakaripur N. Sridhar, eds. New Delhi: Manohar Publications.

Ronkin, Maggie. 2004. “Resistance (and Agency) in a Lahori Domestic Worker’s Narrative.” In William Randall, Delores Furlong, and Tanya Poitras, eds. Narrative Matters 2004 Conference Proceedings. Fredericton, New Brunswick: Narrative Matters Conference Planning Committee.

Ronkin, Maggie and Helen E. Karn. 1999. “Mock Ebonics: Linguistic Racism in Parodies of Ebonics on the Internet.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 3.3. 360-380.

Book Reviews and Notice

2007. Book Review: Ring, Laura A. 2006. Zenana: Everyday Peace in a Karachi Apartment Building. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. The Journal of Asian Studies 66.4.1206-1208.

2006. Book Review: Bhatia, Nandi. 2004. Acts of Authority/Acts of Resistance: Theater and Politics in Colonial and Postcolonial India. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. The Journal of Asian Studies 65.3. 638-640.

2005. Book Review: Mukherjee, Arun Prabha, translator. 2003. Joothan: A Dalit’s Life by Omprakash Valmiki (original in Hindi). New York: Columbia University Press. The Journal of Asian Studies 64.2. 504-505.

2004. Book Review: Tarlo, Emma. 2003. Unsettling Memories: Narratives of the Emergency in Delhi. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. The Journal of Asian Studies 63.4. 1184-1185.

2002. Book Review: Wortham, Stanton. 2001. Narratives in Action: A Strategy for Research and Analysis (Counseling and Development Series). New York: Columbia University Teachers College Press, Columbia University. Journal of Sociolinguistics 6.4. 615-618.

1997. Book Notice: Singh, Rajendra, Probal Dasgupta, and Jayant K. Lele, eds. 1995. Explorations in Indian Sociolinguistics (Language and Development—Volume 2, Udaya Narayna Singh and Probal Dasgupta, series editors). New Delhi: Sage Publications Ltd. Language 74.3. 902-3.

Editorial Assistance

2008. Wilce, James M. Language and Emotion. (Cambridge Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

2008. Siddiqi, Moazzam. “Maulvi Haq and his Private Zoo” by Akhtar Hussain Raipuri (English translation from Urdu), for the Oxford India Anthology of Modern Urdu Literature, Volume 3, edited by Mehr Afshan Farooqi. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Selected Presentations

“Linguistic Anthropology in Community Settings.” Aga Khan University Medical College Humanities and Social Science Forum. Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan and Department of Social Sciences, Lahore Institute of Management Sciences (LUMS), January 2009 (expected).

“Discursive Positioning and Projecting Moral Identity in an Autobiographical Narrative.” Panel on Discourse-based Approaches to Narrative: Stance, Identity, Responsibility, Memory, Tradition. Maggie Ronkin, Chair, and Minerva Oropeza, Organizer. Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, November 2008.

Longer version accepted for the panel on Representations of Women, Maggie Ronkin, Chair, Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison, October 2008, and

Panel on Sociolinguistics, Discourse, and Poetics, James W. Gair, Chair, South Asian Language Analysis Round Table (SALA) 28 in conjunction with the Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison, October 2008.

Seminar on Pakistan led by Michael Fisher, Department of History, Oberlin College, October 2008.

“Voicing and Positioning to Produce a Local Moral Order.” Panel on Narrating Moral Selves in Everyday Life: The 'Struggle for Recognition' across Cultures. Fathali Moghaddam, Discussant. International Conference of the Society for the Study of Narrative Literature, Washington, DC, March 2007.

“Stepping into a Women's Collective Story in Lahore.” Panel on Constructing Gender in South Asian Muslim Texts and Practices. Amy Bard and Maggie Ronkin, Organizers, and Katherine Ewing, Chair. Annual South Asia Conference, University of Wisconsin, Madison, October 2006.

“Fugitive Meanings and Veiled Resistance in an Oral Narrative.” Panel on Literatures, sponsored by the American Institute of Pakistan Studies and the Annual of Urdu Studies. C. M. Naim. Discussant. Second Biennial International Pakistan Studies Conference, University of Pennsylvania, April 2005.

“Interrogating Power Upside Down: Literal and Hypothetical Worlds in Narration.” Panel on Discourse, and Inequality. South Asian Language Analysis Round Table (SALA) 24. State University of New York at Stony Brook, November 2004.

“Resistance (and Agency) in a Lahori Domestic Worker’s Narrative.” Narrative Matters 2004, Fredericton, New Brunswick, May 2004. Workshop on Languages of Afghanistan, South Asia Language Resource Center, University of Chicago and University of Pennsylvania December 2003.

1. Materials and Resources for Language Study
2. Resources for the Study of Language Policy in Central Asia and Miscellaneous Materials
3. Resources for the Study of Orthography in Language Planning in Mongolia

“A Strategy for Revealing the Incriminating in an Urdu-Panjabi Narrative.” Panel on Achieved and Attributed Identity in Interaction. Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, November 2003 (Cancelled due to injury).

“Izzat see Bai Thee huee, Allaah kii Raah par Lagee” (“While Maintaining our Honor, We’ve Taken the Path of Allah”). Panel on Contributions from the Study of Pakistani Languages. New Perspectives on Pakistan: Contexts, Realities, and Visions for the Future. First Biennial International Pakistan Studies Conference. Southern Asian Institute, Columbia University, April 2003.

“Speech Actions, Face-Work, and the Self in a Lahori Woman’s Personal Experience Narrative.” Panel on Women, Language Use, and Performativity in Muslim South Asia and Beyond. Annual South Asia Conference, University of Wisconsin, Madison, October 2002.

“Discursive Positioning and Identity Construction in a Pakistani Narrative.” Symposium about Language and Society (SALSA). University of Texas at Austin, April 2002.

“Represented Speech, Positioning, and Identity in a Pakistani Family-Centered Narrative.” Panel on Linguistic Positionality and the Construction of Identity. Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC, December 2001.

“Framing a Working-Class Woman’s Urdu-Panjabi Narratives.” Annual Pakistan Workshop, Keele University and University of Kent at Canterbury, UK, September 2001. (Presented electronically due to airport closures).

“Gendered Communication Styles: A Tribute to the Work of Dr. Deborah Tannen.” (Invited plenary). International Women's Day National Seminar on Women in Higher Education Management, Fatima Jinnah Women’s University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, March 2000.

“The Anti-Ebonics Ideology.” (Invited). Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics, Language in Our Time: Bilingual Education and Official English, Ebonics and Standard English, Immigration and the Unz Initiative, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, May 1999.

(with Helen E. Karn) “Lessons Learned from the Ebonics Controversy.” (Special event). Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Philadelphia, December 1998.

(with Helen E. Karn) “Mock Ebonics: Linguistic Racism in Parodies of Ebonics on the Internet.” Annual Meeting of the American Dialect Society, held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting
of the Linguistic Society of America, New York City, January 1998.

A revised version of the paper has been used in courses at Brown University, the University of Calgary, the University of California at Santa Cruz, Carnegie Mellon University, the City University of New York, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Sonoma State University, Stanford University, the University of Essex (UK), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of South Carolina, the University of Texas at Austin, West Virginia University, and Yale University, among others.

Talks based on the project were presented to:

The Discourse Research Seminar, Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, March 1999.

The Word at Blair, a Maryland Educational Television Program produced by high school students, February 1999.

The Interdisciplinary Works-in-Progress Speakers’ Series, sponsored by the English Department Research Committee and the Dean of Interdisciplinary Programs, Georgetown University, February 1988.

The undergraduate course on Language and Social Life, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University, April 1998 and April 1999.

The graduate course on Public Opinion, Propaganda, and the Media, Department of Linguistics and the Graduate School Program in Communication, Culture, and Technology, Georgetown University, February 1998.

“Roger, Roger, There’s a Fire in the House: An Interactional Account of Deixis in Preschool Children’s Pretend Play.” Midwest Modern Language Association Forum, Studies in Deixis: Working at the Margins of Semantics and Pragmatics, Chicago, November 1997.

“Language Ideology and Linguistic Racism in Outgroup Parodies of Ebonics.” (invited). Graduate seminar on African American Vernacular English, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University, September 1997.

“Usage and Warning Labels on Three Over-the-Counter Pediatric Cough and Cold Medicines: A Practical Application of Pragmatics.” Annual Meeting of the International Linguistic Association, Washington, DC, March 1997.

Professional Activities (not noted elsewhere)

2005-08: Convener of the Seminar Series, Sufism and Urdu Poetry in Society, led by Moazzam Siddiqi, in the Departments of Philosophy and Linguistics and the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University.

2006: Participant in the Workshop Saraapaa: From Head to Foot at the Southern Asian Institute of Columbia University.

2005: Convener of the Summer Seminar Series, Urdu Poetry in Society, led by Moazzam Siddiqi, for the South Asia Studies Program at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

2004: Facilitator for an undergraduate panel and Chair of the Session on Language and Resistance at the Georgetown University Women’s Studies Program Interdisciplinary Student Conference on Globalization and Gender.

2004: Participant in the Urdu Workshop on the poetry of the Shia mourning assembly, the Urdu Marsiyah in Text and Performance, at the Southern Asian Institute of Columbia University.

2003: Bibliographer for the Workshop on Languages of Afghanistan and Its Neighbors at the University of Pennsylvania.

2003: Participant in the Workshop on the Panjabi Folk Poetry of Bullha Shah at the Southern Asian Institute of Columbia University.

2003: Convener of a panel on Contributions from the Study of Pakistani Languages for the Conference on New Perspectives on Pakistan: Contexts, Realities, and Visions for the Future, First Biennial International Pakistan Studies Conference, at the Southern Asian Institute of Columbia University.

2002: Co-organizer of the panel on New Approaches to Face-Work for the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association.

2002: Organizer and Chair of the panel on Women, Language Use, and Performativity in Muslim South Asia and Beyond for the Annual South Asia Conference at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

2002: Participant in the Urdu Workshop on Rehkti at the Southern Asian Institute of Columbia University.

2001: Participant in the Urdu Workshop on the Poet Nazir Akbarabadi at the Southern Asian Institute of Columbia University.

2001: Participant in the Georgetown Pakistan Forum of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

1998: Discussant on the Society for Linguistic Anthropology’s Special Event Panel, Formulating Language Policy: Public Debates and the Role of an Anthropolitical Linguistics, at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association.

1997: Representative of the American Dialect Society at the Inauguration of the Fifth President of George Mason University.

1997: Graduate Assistant for the Forty-Second Annual Conference of the International Linguistic Association.

1996-97: Graduate Student Coordinator of the First Georgetown University Department of Linguistics Speakers’ Series.

1996: Co-organizer of the Forty-Seventh Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics.

1995: Co-organizer of the Forty-Sixth Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics.

Affiliation and Memberships

Visiting Research Scholar, South Asia Institute, University of Texas at Austin

Visiting Research Scholar, Lok Virsa, National Institute of Folklife, Islamabad, Pakistan

Member, American Anthropological Association, American Institute of Pakistan Studies, Linguistic Society of America, Society for Linguistic Anthropology, Society for Psychological Anthropology

Fellowships and Awards

2008-09: American Institute of Pakistan Studies Research Fellowship: Re-making Sense of the Past in the Present: Ritual Practices in Sheedi Communities (deferred due to U.S. Government Travel Prohibition).

2001-09: Conference and Panel Travel Awards: American Institute of Pakistan Studies, Georgetown University Department of Linguistics and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Narrative Matters, and the Social Science and the Humanities Research Council of Canada.

2008: Foreign Scholars’ Award (local support for research), Lok Virsa Museum Educational Programme, Islamabad, Pakistan (expired unused).

2002-03: American Institute of Pakistan Studies Fellowship for dissertation research (deferred due to U.S. Government travel prohibition).

Fall 2000: Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Merit Fellowship for dissertation research (research interrupted due to death in family).

Spring 2000: American Institute of Pakistan Studies Fellowship for preliminary dissertation research.

Fall 1999: NMERTA/US Information Agency Fellowship for the Berkeley Urdu Language Program in Pakistan.

Summer 1999: Linguistic Society of America Fellowship for the National Science Foundation-sponsored Institute on Methods in Linguistic Anthropology.

Summer 1999: Alternate for the Language in the USA Fellowship of the Linguistic Society of America.

1999-2001: Presidential Honorary Membership in the American Dialect Society.

1998-2001 and 1995: Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Scholarships for studies in sociolinguistics.

1996-98 and 1994-95: Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Fellowships for studies in sociolinguistics.

1992-94: University of Illinois Dean’s Discretionary Fellowships for studies in general linguistics.

1986-1992: U.S. Department of Education awards to study Hindi, Urdu, and Pashto; Fulbright-Hayes Group Projects Abroad support for Urdu in Pakistan, and support from the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, for Tajik language training.

References on Request