Jennifer B Delfino
Biographic Data
| ID | 92031 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jennifer B Delfino |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jennifer B |
| FAMILY NAME | Delfino |
| SIGNATURE | DELFINO J B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1158-0093 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 27 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 7 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Becoming Filipino
This article examines how Filipino Americans variably constructed the meaning of “heritage” in an online Tagalog class offered by a Filipino cultural institute in the greater New York City area. Using ethnographic data collected from September-December 2021, the article combines theories and methods in postcolonial semiotics with narrative analysis to examine the emergent production of chronotopes, or time-space narratives of language and personh…
Heritage language, racialization, and (post-)colonialism
This introduction to a double special issue features anti-hegemonic conceptualizations of imagined relationships between heritage and heritage language; race, racism, and racialization; colonialism and coloniality. It considers each set of terms as predominantly shaped by European colonialisms and semiotically configured into metrics of sociolinguistic inequality promulgating and/or resisting white supremacy in its various forms and permutations …
White Allies and the Semiotics of Wokeness
This study examines how the figure of the white ally is constructed on Facebook via raciolinguistic chronotopes of "white virtue," which is the idea that whites who can identify racism are good people who cannot themselves be racist. Using data I collected from a public group called "White People ACTING for Change!" (WPAC) I use semiotic discourse analysis to highlight how participants produce histories of becoming a woke white ally towards an im…
Speaking of Race
Speaking of Race explores the linguistic practices of African American children in an after school program in Washington, DC. Drawing on ethnographic research, Jennifer B. Delfino illustrates how students’ linguistic practices are often perceived as barriers to learning and achievement and provides an in-depth look at how students challenge this perception by using language to transform the meaning of race in relation to ideas about academic succ…
"Talking "like a race
This study examines how 9- to 13-year old African American students in a Washington, D.C. after-school program use an African American discourse practice calledmarkingto voice adults performing acts of discipline. Using audio-recorded data collected during nine months of ethnographic fieldwork, it shows how students used marking to resemiotize the prestige value of African American Language (AAL) relative to so-called "standard" American English,…
Racialization and the national body
This introduction argues that understanding the co-construction of race, language, and nation is essential to understanding liberal democratic governance in today's world. Using the theories and methods of raciolinguistics, we argue that voicing and resemiotization are important discursive processes that people use to reconstitute selves and Others in relation to liberal democratic ideas about national belonging. Specifically, we examine how raci…
Fighting words? Joning as conflict talk and identity performance among African American preadolescents
This study examines how preadolescent African American students in Washington, D.C., used a linguistic practice called 'joning,' a style of verbal play similar to ritual insults, in peer interactions. Sociolinguists have focused on how children socialize each other into vernacular styles appropriate for peer group use but often assume that they disalign with social and linguistic norms for classroom behavior. Drawing from a nine-month ethnographi…
White Allies and the Semiotics of Wokeness
This study examines how the figure of the white ally is constructed on Facebook via raciolinguistic chronotopes of "white virtue," which is the idea that whites who can identify racism are good people who cannot themselves be racist. Using data I collected from a public group called "White People ACTING for Change!" (WPAC) I use semiotic discourse analysis to highlight how participants produce histories of becoming a woke white ally towards an im…
Fighting words? Joning as conflict talk and identity performance among African American preadolescents
This study examines how preadolescent African American students in Washington, D.C., used a linguistic practice called 'joning,' a style of verbal play similar to ritual insults, in peer interactions. Sociolinguists have focused on how children socialize each other into vernacular styles appropriate for peer group use but often assume that they disalign with social and linguistic norms for classroom behavior. Drawing from a nine-month ethnographi…
Racialization and the national body
This introduction argues that understanding the co-construction of race, language, and nation is essential to understanding liberal democratic governance in today's world. Using the theories and methods of raciolinguistics, we argue that voicing and resemiotization are important discursive processes that people use to reconstitute selves and Others in relation to liberal democratic ideas about national belonging. Specifically, we examine how raci…
Fighting words? Joning as conflict talk and identity performance among African American preadolescents
This study examines how preadolescent African American students in Washington, D.C., used a linguistic practice called 'joning,' a style of verbal play similar to ritual insults, in peer interactions. Sociolinguists have focused on how children socialize each other into vernacular styles appropriate for peer group use but often assume that they disalign with social and linguistic norms for classroom behavior. Drawing from a nine-month ethnographi…
Speaking of Race
Speaking of Race explores the linguistic practices of African American children in an after school program in Washington, DC. Drawing on ethnographic research, Jennifer B. Delfino illustrates how students’ linguistic practices are often perceived as barriers to learning and achievement and provides an in-depth look at how students challenge this perception by using language to transform the meaning of race in relation to ideas about academic succ…
"Talking "like a race
This study examines how 9- to 13-year old African American students in a Washington, D.C. after-school program use an African American discourse practice calledmarkingto voice adults performing acts of discipline. Using audio-recorded data collected during nine months of ethnographic fieldwork, it shows how students used marking to resemiotize the prestige value of African American Language (AAL) relative to so-called "standard" American English,…
Racialization and the national body
This introduction argues that understanding the co-construction of race, language, and nation is essential to understanding liberal democratic governance in today's world. Using the theories and methods of raciolinguistics, we argue that voicing and resemiotization are important discursive processes that people use to reconstitute selves and Others in relation to liberal democratic ideas about national belonging. Specifically, we examine how raci…
White Allies and the Semiotics of Wokeness
This study examines how the figure of the white ally is constructed on Facebook via raciolinguistic chronotopes of "white virtue," which is the idea that whites who can identify racism are good people who cannot themselves be racist. Using data I collected from a public group called "White People ACTING for Change!" (WPAC) I use semiotic discourse analysis to highlight how participants produce histories of becoming a woke white ally towards an im…
Becoming Filipino
This article examines how Filipino Americans variably constructed the meaning of “heritage” in an online Tagalog class offered by a Filipino cultural institute in the greater New York City area. Using ethnographic data collected from September-December 2021, the article combines theories and methods in postcolonial semiotics with narrative analysis to examine the emergent production of chronotopes, or time-space narratives of language and personh…
Heritage language, racialization, and (post-)colonialism
This introduction to a double special issue features anti-hegemonic conceptualizations of imagined relationships between heritage and heritage language; race, racism, and racialization; colonialism and coloniality. It considers each set of terms as predominantly shaped by European colonialisms and semiotically configured into metrics of sociolinguistic inequality promulgating and/or resisting white supremacy in its various forms and permutations …
Multilingual Education and Policy (6 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Ethnography (3 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (3 works) · Linguistics (3 works) · Anthropology (2 works) · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies (2 works) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (2 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (2 works)