Scott Kiesling

Scott Fabius Kiesling is an associate professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh.[1] With the completion of his dissertation, Language, Gender, and Power in Fraternity Men's Discourse, Kiesling received a PhD in linguistics in 1996 from Georgetown University, where he previously completed an M.S. in linguistics. He also received a B.A. in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989. Kiesling has held previous academic positions at the University of Sydney and The Ohio State University and is a member of the Committee on Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics at the Linguistic Society of America.[2]

Scott Kiesling is best known for his studies of language and identity, particularly the construction of masculinity and gender.[3][4] His work treats dominant social categories such as masculinity, heterosexuality and whiteness as social constructions achieved via discourse and language behavior, among other social behaviors.[5] In his work with American fraternity members, Kiesling suggests that men are expected to demonstrate both solidarity, a condition of closeness with other men, and heterosexuality, which precludes intimacy with other men.[5][6] He suggests that one way to show these complicated relationships is through the use of "cool" language elements such as the word dude or sundry non-standard language variants.[3]

Kiesling is also known for work in sociolinguistics and language variation in both American English and Australian English. For example, in a 1996 paper, Kiesling suggests that some American men use alveolar -ING tokens (e.g. walkin' rather than walking) to index power roles associated with working-class men, and indirectly with the values of hard work and physical strength.[4] Similarly, a 2005 paper finds that Greek and Lebanese speakers in Australia pronounce word-final -ER (as in brother) further back in vocal space and longer than Anglo speakers do.[7] For some speakers this backed variant is indexical of Greek identity, but in general "creates a stance of authoritative connection, a linguistic resource which is also potentially available to Anglo-Australians."[7]

Kiesling is also co-editor, with Christina Bratt Paulston, of Intercultural Discourse and Communication: The Essential Readings, a book of readings on intercultural discourse for students in sociolinguistics, anthropology, communication or other related fields.[8]

References

  1. ^ "Faculty". Linguistics: University of Pittsburgh. 28 July 2010. http://www.linguistics.pitt.edu/people/faculty/index.php. Retrieved 2010-09-09. 
  2. ^ "Ethnic diversity in linguistics mentors list". LSA: About the LSA. 14 January 2006. http://www.lsadc.org/info/lsa-comm-CEDLmentors.cfm. Retrieved 2010-09-09. 
  3. ^ a b Kiesling, Scott F. 2004. Dude. American Speech 79(3). 281-305.
  4. ^ a b Kiesling, Scott F. 1996. Men's identities and patterns of variation. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 3(1). 171-196.
  5. ^ a b Kiesling, Scott F. 1997. From the 'margins' to the 'mainstream': Gender identity and fraternity men's discourse. Women and Language 20(1). 13-17.
  6. ^ Kiesling, Scott F. 1998. Men's identities and sociolinguistic variation: The case of fraternity men. Journal of Sociolinguistics 2(1). 69-99.
  7. ^ a b Kiesling, Scott F. 2005. Variation, stance and style: Word-final -er, high rising tone, and ethnicity in Australian English. English World-Wide 26(1). 1-42.
  8. ^ Kiesling, Scott F. & Christina Bratt Paulston. 2005. Intercultural Discourse and Communication: The Essential Readings. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0631235434