Jillian Cavanaugh
Professor
Anthropology
Location: 3301D James Hall
Phone: 718.951.5507
Fax: 718.951.3169
Email:
Jillian Cavanaugh grew up in Colorado and lived in Italy and Indonesia for extended stretches, which led to her enduring interests in the connections between language and culture. She joined the Anthropology Department at Brooklyn College in 2004, where she teaches classes on language and culture; endangered and heritage languages; language, gender and sexuality; the anthropology of Europe; food and culture; and language and media.
Education:
Ph.D., New York University - 2003 (Anthropology)
MA, New York University - 1997 (Anthropology)
BA, Vassar College - 1993 (Independent Major in Sociolinguistics)
Areas of Expertise:
Cavanaugh is a linguistic and cultural anthropologist whose geographical area is northern Italy. She has done extensive field work in Bergamo, Italy, on language shift and social change, language ideology, gender, accent, material culture, food production and social transformation. She is interested in the ways in which people use the symbolic and material resources at their disposal to live meaningful lives.
Books and Publications
Trash Talk: Language as Waste Practice. (Response to Rubbish: Envisioning a Sociolinguistics of Waste by Crispin Thurlow.) Journal of Sociolinguistics, 00, 1- 7. https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.12558
(Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2022
Transcription as embodied entextualization: Process, transformation, authority. Language, Culture, and Society. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2021
Language as Social Action. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Oxford University Press. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2020
Language Ideology Revisited. International Journal of Sociolinguistics [reprint]. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2020
Aesthetics. In The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology. James Stanlaw, ed. Wiley-Blackwell. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2019
Introduction. In American Anthropologist Vital Topics Forum: What Happened to Social Facts? Karen Ho co-author. American Anthropologist 121(1): 160-167. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2019
Labeling authenticity, or How I almost got arrested in an Italian supermarket. Semiotic Review 5. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2019
Food and Language: Production, Consumption, and Circulation of Meaning and Value. With Martha Karrabaek and Kathleen C. Riley. Annual Review of Anthropology 47:17-32. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2018
"Tasty Talk, Expressive Food: Introduction to the Semiotics of Food-and-Language." Semiotic Review Special issue entitled "Food-and-Language." 5. (with Kathleen C. Riley) (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2017
"The Blacksmith's Feet: Embodied Entextualization in Northern Italian Vernacular Poetry." Representations. Special issue entitled "Language-in-Use and the Literary Artifact." 137:68-87. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2017
Anything can happen on YouTube (or can it?): Endangered language and new media. In Cultural Anthropology: Contemporary, Public and Critical Readings. Keri V. Brondo, ed. Oxford University Press, pp.88-95. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2017
Beer in the Land of Wine: New Traditions, Global Forces. With Matteo Fastigi. Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies. 17: 39-50. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2017
Food Talk: Studying Food and Language In Use Together (with Dr. Kathleen Riley). In Research Methods for the Anthropological Study of Food and Nutrition, Vol. 2. John Brett and Janet Chrzan, eds. Berghann Books, pp.143-158. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2017
Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology Food Research (with Kathleen Riley). In Research Methods for the Anthropological Study of Food and Nutrition, Vol 2. John Brett and Janet Chrzan, eds. Berghann Books, pp.131-142. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2017
Language and Materiality: Ethnographic and Theoretical Explorations. Edited with Shalini Shankar. New York: Cambridge University Press. (Books and Publications: Book (Edited)) 2017
"Documenting Subjects: Performativity and Audit Culture in Food Production in Northern Italy." American Ethnologist 43(4): 691-703. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2016
"Indexicalities of Language in Ferrante?s Neapolitan Novels: Dialect and Italian as Markers of Social Value and Difference." In The Works of Elena Ferrante: Reconfiguring the Margins. Grace Russo Bullaro and Stephanie Love, eds. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 45-70. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2016
"Talk as Work: Economic Sociability in Northern Italian Heritage Food Production." Language and Communication 48:41-52. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2016
"Performativity." Oxford Bibliographies in Anthropology. Ed. John Jackson. New York: Oxford University Press. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2015
Cavanaugh, Jillian and Dr. Shalini Shankar. "Producing Authenticity in Global Capitalism: Language, Materiality, and Value." American Anthropologist 166.1: 51-64. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2014
Cavanaugh, Jillian and Kathleen C. Riley (co-author), and Alexandra Jaffe, Christine Jourdan, Martha Karrabeak and Amy Paugh (collaborators). "What Words Bring to the Table: The Linguistic Anthropological Toolkit as Applied to the Study of Food." Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 24.1: 84-97. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2014
"Il y a kébab et kébab: Conflit local et alimentation globale en Italie du nord" [When Is a Kebab Not Just a Kebab?: Local Conflict, Global Food in Northern Italy]. Anthropologie et Sociétés 37.2: 193-212. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2013
"Language Ideologies and Language Attitudes: A Linguistic Anthropological Perspective." Language Variation--European Perspectives IV Selected Papers From the 6th International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 6): 45-55. Freiburg, Germany: John Benjamins. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2013
"Entering Into Politics: Interdiscursivity, Register, Stance, and Vernacular in Northern Italy." Language in Society 41.1: 73-95. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2012
"Intersections of Gender and Endangered Languages: A Commentary." Special issue of Gender and Language 6.2: 369-78. Invited commentary. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2012
Cavanaugh, Jillian and Dr. Shalini Shankar. "Language Materiality in Global Capitalism." Annual Review of Anthropology 41: 355-69. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2012
"Accent Matters: The Material Consequences of Sounding Local in Northern Italy" reprint. Anthropological Linguistics vol. 3. Eds. Bambi B. Schieffelin and Paul Garrett. New York: Routledge. 88-110. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2010
Living Memory: The Social Aesthetics of Language in a Northern Italian Town. Book manuscript. Blackwell Publishing. (Books and Publications: Book (Authored)) 2009
"The Questione della Lingua: The Incomplete Standardization of Italian." Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe. 8.1: 18-31. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2008
"Making Salami, Producing Bergamo: The Production and Transformation of Value in a Northern Italian Town." Ethnos 72.2: 114-39. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2007
"Little Women and Vital Champions: Gendered Language Shift in a Northern Italian Town." Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 16.2: 194-210. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2006
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
Cultural Anthropology Senior Research Grant (#1260270), National Science Foundation. (Grants and Fellowships) 2013
Bridges Across Brooklyn Faculty Fellows Program. Brooklyn College. (Grants and Fellowships) 2010
PSC-CUNY 41 Research Award. University Committee on Research Awards, CUNY. (Grants and Fellowships) 2010
PSC-CUNY 40 Research Award. University Committee on Research Awards, CUNY. (Grants and Fellowships) 2009
PSC-CUNY 39 Research Award. University Committee on Research Awards, CUNY. (Grants and Fellowships) 2008
PSC-CUNY 38 Research Award. University Committee on Research Awards, CUNY. (Grants and Fellowships) 2007
Whiting Faculty Fellowship. Brooklyn College. (Grants and Fellowships) 2007
NEH Summer Stipend. National Endowment for the Humanities. (Grants and Fellowships) 2006
PSC-CUNY 37 Research Award. University Committee on Research Awards, CUNY. (Grants and Fellowships) 2006
Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums
Transcription as embodied entextualization: Process, transformation, authority. Sawyer Seminar Series. UC Berkeley.
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2019
All in the Family: The Meaning and Value of Food Production in Northern Italy. Department of Anthropology Colloquium Series. New York University. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2018
Ancient Cooking in a Modern Key: Intextextualities in a 17th Century Northern Italian Vernacular Cookbook. In seminar "Talk about Talk." American Comparative Literature Association, Boston, MA. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2016
If Pigs Have Passports, Too: Documents as Mechanisms of Institutionalization. As part of invited panel "From A Back Row: Processes of Institutionalization and the Institutionalization of Life." 115th American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, Minneapolis, MN. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2016
Indexicalities of Language in Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels: Dialect and Italian as Markers of Social Value and Difference. As part of panel "Literary Criticism Meets Linguistic Anthropology: Social Indexicality, Entextualization, Language in Use." Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Austin, TX. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2016
Talk as Work: Economic Sociability in Northern Italian Heritage Food Production. Hunter Undergraduate Linguistics Conference Keynote Speaker. (HULLS6). Hunter College CUNY. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2016
"Economic Sociability: Talk and Exchange in Northern Italian Heritage Food Production" distinguished lecture. School of Anthropology, University of Arizona. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2015
"Linguistic and Material Performativities in Global Capitalism" keynote. Symposium About Language and Society Austin. University of Texas, Austin. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2014
"Commodifying Heritage: Language and the Formation of Value Among Northern Italian Food Producers." SLA-invited panel: Language Commodification and Circulation in Global Capitalism. 111th American Anthropological Annual meetings. San Francisco. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2012
"Racializing Heritage: Language, Food, and Facebook in Northern Italy." CUNY Graduate Center Linguistics Ph.D. / M.A. Program. Sociolinguistics Lunch Series. New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2012
"Anything Can Happen on Youtube (Or Can It?): Endangered Language and New Media." Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics. Washington, D.C. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
"Language Ideologies and Language Attitudes: A Linguistic Anthropological Perspective." Perception and Attitude Panel, 6th International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE). Freiburg, Germany. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2011
"When Is a Kebab Not Just a Kebab? A Political Poetics of Place, Food and Citizenship in Northern Italy." 110th American Anthropology Annual Meetings. Montreal. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
"Living Memory. Valorizzare la lingua locale significa rivitalizarla o trasformarla in un pezzo da museo? I risultati di una ricerca sulla lingua bergamasca del territorio e della città." (Living Memory. Does valorizing the local language mean revitalizing it or transforming it into an object in a museum? Research results on the Bergamasco language of the territory and the city.) Ateneo di Scienze, Lettere, ed Arti di Bergamo. Bergamo, Italy. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2010
"New Media, Familiar Grooves: The Circulation and Contraction of a Northern Italian Vernacular." 109th American Anthropology Annual Meetings. New Orleans. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
"Speaking of Place: Campanilismo as Linguistic Practice in Northern Italy." Terre Promesse: Excursions Towards Italian Topographies Conference. John D. Calandra Italian American Institute. New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
"Interdiscursivity, Register, and the Production of Localism: Language and Dialect in Northern Italy." New York Area Linguistic Anthropology Working Group. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Contributed Talk) 2009
"Laying and Avoiding Interdiscursive 'Traps': Registering the Local in Contemporary Italy." 108th American Anthropology Annual Meetings. Philadelphia. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009
"Locally Speaking: The Meaning and Role of Dialect in 21st-century Northern Italy." Italian Studies Seminar. Columbia University, New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2009
"The Value of Narrative." Phi Beta Kappa Commencement Ceremony Speaker. Brooklyn College. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2009
"Celebrating Culture: Local Festivals and the Representational Economy of Nostalgia in Northern Italy." 107th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. San Francisco. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2008
"Incomplete Standardization and the Production of Localism: Language and Dialect in Northern Italy." Annual conference of the Council for European Studies. Chicago. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2008
"The Value of Place in Particular: Memory, Geography and Aesthetics." Given as part of Italian Heritage and Culture Month, Brooklyn College. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2008
"Producing the Past, Consuming the Present: Language as Commodity in Northern Italy." 106th American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings. Washington, D.C. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2007
"Linguistic Ambiguity, Social Ambivalence, and Cultural Authenticity: Bad Language in Northern Italy." American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings. San Jose, Calif. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2006
