Jonathan Rosa examines the linguistic characteristics that influence culture and identity in the Latino community. The rapid rise of the U.S. Latino population, now the Nation's largest demographic Minority group, has heightened concerns about the future of American identity and brought increased attention to the institutional management of ethnolinguistic difference. In order to understand the creation of the ethnoracial and linguistic categories that shape Latina/o identities and experiences, Rosa is developing a grant entitled, “Learning Latina/o Ethnolinguistic Identities across the U.S.” for the National Science Founding Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. For this project, he plans to conduct ethnographic and sociolinguisticfieldwork through out the nation’s most distinctive Latina/o contexts, including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami.