Earlier this year, Dr. Xuan Zhang at the Centre for Writing and Scholarly Communication received a StEAR Enhancement Fund grant for her project, “Raising Awareness on Raciolinguistic Discrimination at UBC.”
In partnership with librarians Allan Cho and Dr. Milan Simić, Xuan has drawn on her expertise in academic English language development to lead an interdisciplinary team of doctoral students. Together, they have created a workshop that explores raciolinguistic diversity and offers strategies for countering discrimination in pedagogy.
Hearing Beyond the Accent: Recognizing Language Prejudice in the Classroom
In an academic world where “standard” English is treated as the measure of intelligence and belonging, we must consider the experiences of our multilingual students. Join us for Hearing Beyond the Accent: Recognizing Language Prejudice in the Classroom, where we spark honest conversations about how accent, dialect, and other aspects of language use impact classroom experiences and opportunities. In this workshop, we examine the often-unseen biases embedded in educational spaces by drawing on lived stories and linguistic frameworks, question myths of “correctness” that shape belonging, and offer suggestions for how we can build more inclusive, responsive learning environments.
Whether you’re a faculty member, TA, or student leader, this session will challenge assumptions, offer tools, and create space to reimagine what linguistic equity can look like in our teaching community.
Facilitators: Chinekwu Nwagwu, Noah Sherazi, Centre for Writing and Scholarly Communication
Date & Time: October 16, 10:00am-11:30am