A complete list of current and past research, service, and professional development activities can be found on my CV.
Research Collaborations
I’m a research collaborator on the NSF-funded Build and Broaden project, “Linguistic Production, Perception, and Identity in the Career Mobility of Black Faculty in Linguistics and the Language Sciences” (PIs: Charity Hudley and Mallinson)
I’m also a member of the Charity Hudley Black Academic Development (BAD) Lab at Stanford University.
Jamaal Muwwakkil, Savithry Namboodiripad, Rachel Weissler, Joyhanna Yoo and I began a collaborative project in 2022 examining the responses of individuals, departments, and institutions to the events of 2022. The ongoing project focuses on assessing the effectiveness and equitability of responses in linguistics and related fields, compiling resources for future efforts, and building community among scholars interested in doing this work. (Please get in touch if you are interested!)
I contributed to Talking College: Making Space for Black Language Practices in Higher Education (Charity Hudley, Mallinson, and Bucholtz 2022). Published by Teachers College Press, the book explores the connections between African American Language and Black undergraduates’ college experiences. The book is based on interview data collected through the UCSB-HBCU Scholars in Linguistics Program, as well as the research and experiences of the authors and contributors.
In 2020, I was a research fellow in the “Disciplining Diversity” Residential Research Group through the UC Humanities Research Institute. The interdisciplinary research group critically examined the concept of diversity in higher education through our experiences as students, teachers, and scholars.
Academic Organizations
I’m an active member of the Linguistic Society of America’s Committee on Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics. The committee works to make linguistics and the society more accessible and structurally supportive of language researchers from ethnoracial groups that are underrepresented in the field.
I’m an affiliate of the Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies, a collective of scholars who study the intersections of race, media, and technology from interdisciplinary perspectives grounded in critical theories.
Community Partnerships
I participated in the School Kids Investigating Language in Life and Society (SKILLS) program as a graduate teaching fellow, site coordinator, and research assistant. The program is a community-based partnership between graduate students, undergraduates, and faculty at UC Santa Barbara; local Santa Barbara high schools; and Santa Barbara City College. It provides high school students the opportunity to take a college-level language and culture course, conduct original linguistic research relevant to their lived experiences, and access resources to prepare for post-secondary education.
I was a partner in the UC-HBCU/NSF REU Scholars in Linguistics Program (PIs: Anne Charity Hudley & Mary Bucholtz) as a graduate researcher, teaching fellow, and research mentor to undergraduate participants. The program brought together Black students from UCSB, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and other institutions around the country who were interested in African American language and culture in linguistics and related fields, with the aim of increasing the representation of Black graduate students in language-related fields.
As part of my professional development in the program, I spent spring semester at one of the program’s partner HBCUs. As a visiting instructor and scholar in-residence, I taught linguistics in the Department of English and learned from the university’s faculty, staff, administrators, and students.
Kendra Calhoun, Ph.D. 