Linguistics Department to Host PhD Alumnus and Scholar J. Michael Terry for Freeman Lecture on Sept. 23

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The Department of Linguistics has announced J. Michael Terry of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill will deliver a talk on "Can Linguistic Differences Affect African American English Speaking 2nd Graders Performance on Math Tests?" as part of the department's annual Freeman Lecture series on Monday, Sept. 23, from 4-5:30 p.m. in the Integrative Learning Center, Room S240.

Terry, who graduated the linguistics PhD program in 2004, is a renowned expert on the linguistics of African American English (AAE), especially its semantics (meanings) in comparison to other varieties of English. More recently, his work has broadened to include experimental studies of how AAE is processed by speakers in real time, employing methodologies like EEG (brainwave) measuring methods and other techniques borrowed from the field of psycholinguistics. 

In addition to being a university alumnus, Terry is also the son of Esther M.A. Terry, one of the founders of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at UMass Amherst.

A full description of Terry's talk can be found here.

The Freeman Lecture is held annually at UMass Amherst and is named in honor of the founding head of our Linguistics Department, Donald C. Freeman, and his wife Margaret Freeman. Previous Freeman Lecture speakers include noteworthy individuals such as Noam Chomsky, Steven Pinker, and John Rickford. These talks are designed for a broad, cross-disciplinary audience of students and faculty across campus.