Shalini Shankar to give talk on spelling bees and childhood in the new millennium
We are pleased to announce an upcoming talk by (Northwestern University), co-sponsoredby the CU Literacy Practicum, the Departmentof Linguistics, and the Department of Anthropology. Prof. Shankar will be discussing her new book,(2019).
Wednesday, April 6, 2022
4:00-6:30pm, including catered reception
British Studies Room
Title:Global Intersections of Language, Caste, and Race:A Case Study of Generation Z at the Spelling Bee
Abstract:Since 2009, an Indian American speller has won every Scripps National Spelling Bee, until 2021. This year, the Bee crowned its first Black American champion, Louisianan Zaila Avant-Garde. This is remarkable because this hallowed educational contest has largely been inaccessible to Black children due to generations of segregation, violence, and racism. How did Avant-Garde break through, and how does her win connect to Indian Americans? In this talk I juxtapose the significance of caste as a system of inequality in the United States with the way it functions in the Indian diaspora. Drawing on data collected at the National Spelling Bee, I explore how upper-caste Indian American elite spellers have developed extensive training and coaching networks that are impacting Gen Z youth beyond their ethnic communities, potentially presenting opportunities where none previously existed. Despite these successes, South Asian American participants and winners have been targets of racist and xenophobic sentiment for dominating an “American” contest, a dynamic that further complicates their perceived success in this educational contest and creates underexplored parallels with Black Americans.
ǸԹ the Speaker:Shalini Shankar is Professor of Anthropology and Asian American Studies at Northwestern University.She is a 2017 Guggenheim Fellow andauthor ofBeeline: What Spelling Bees Reveal about Generation Z’s New Path to Success(2019);Advertising Diversity: Ad Agencies and the Creation of Asian American Consumers(2015); andDesi land: Teen Culture, Class, and Success in Silicon Valley(2008).