Shalini Shankar

Assistant Professor (PhD New York University 2003)

1810 Hinman, Room 212

(847) 467-1638

sshankar@northwestern.edu

RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS: Sociocultural and Linguistic Anthropology, media, material culture, language use, youth, race & ethnicity, Asian diasporas. Joint appointment with Asian American Studies.

Shalini Shankar is a sociocultural and linguistic anthropologist whose central concerns include media, consumption, race and ethnicity, youth culture, Asian America, and the South Asian diaspora. She has conducted research in Silicon Valley, CA, New York, NY, and is beginning work in Chicago, IL. Shankar’s current research examines issues of diversity and representation in advertising. She is presently conducting ethnographic and sociolinguistic fieldwork in general market and Asian American advertising agencies. Areas of focus include: how advertisers talk about diversity, especially with regard to Asian Americans; how language, nationality, and other cultural markers are used to appeal to consumers; and how multicultural markets are being refashioned.

Shankar’s forthcoming monograph, Desi Land: Teen Culture, Class, and Success in Silicon Valley (Duke University Press, In press), is based on her first research project. It focuses on Desi (South Asian American) youth in socieconomically and racially diverse high schools and analyzes how their everyday cultural and linguistic practices intersect with their immigration history and class status to impact their educational and career paths. Shankar uses the postwar makeover of Silicon Valley from an agrarian region to a microelectronic and defense production nexus as a starting point from which to examine how these changes have radically reshaped the California landscape and immigrant populace. One of the key questions she examines is what “success” means for Desis of different class and immigration backgrounds, and how such meanings articulate with this group’s broader characterization as a “model minority.” Teens’ orientation toward school, their ability to take advantage of opportunities in the high tech industry and manage economic downturns, and their everyday social and linguistic interaction all shape what it means to be Desi at the start of the millennium. Especially in a post- 9/11 California, how Desis of different backgrounds are able to position themselves socially and economically, both in their communities and in society, shapes broader racial meanings of the category of South Asian American.

COURSES

Asian Diasporas: Bollywood and Beyond

Asian American Media

Current Issues and Debates in Anthropology

Logic of Inquiry: Linguistic Anthropology

Language and Discourse in Media

Language and Identity

Language, Race, and Ethnicity in Asian America

Media in Asia and Asian Diasporas

The Study of Culture through Language

Youth Culture in Asian Diasporas

PUBLICATIONS

2008. Desi Land: Teen Culture, Class, and Success in Silicon Valley. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. (November 2008 publication).

In press. “Linguistic Transgressions of a Model Minority: Meanings and Usages of “FOB” (Fresh Off the Boat) among Desi teens in Silicon Valley.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 18(2).

In Preparation. “Recent Ethnographies on the South Asian Diaspora.” An invited review for Identities.

2006 “Metaconsumptive Practices and the Circulation of Objectifications.” Journal of Material Culture 11(3): 293-317.

2004B “Reel to Real: Desi Teens' Linguistic Engagements with Bollywood.” Pragmatics 14(2-3): 317-335. Special Issue: “Relationality: Discursive Constructions of Asian Pacific American Identities.” A. Reyes and A. Lo, editors. (This essay will be reprinted in an Oxford University Press edited volume.)

2004A “FOBby or Tight? ‘Multicultural Day’ and Other Struggles at Two Silicon Valley High Schools. In Local Actions: Cultural Activism, Power and Public Life in America. Melissa Checker and Maggie Fishman, eds. New York: Columbia University Press, pps. 184-207.

PAPERS PRESENTED

2008 “Defining Desi Teen Culture: Teenage Girls, Class, and Cosmopolitanism in Silicon Valley.” Presented at the Colloquium on Girl Studies, Loyola University Chicago, April 12, 2008.

2007 “Curses! South Asian American Youth in the Monoglot American High School.” Presented at the Association for Asian American Studies Meeting, New York, New York.

2006 “Curses! Desi teens and the Monoglot High School.” Presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Jose, CA.

2005 “Linguistic Dimensions of Desi Identity and Subjectivity.” Presented at the Association for Asian American Studies Meeting, Los Angeles, CA.

2003 “Borrowed, Rented, or Imagined: ‘Metaconsumptive’ Practices Among Desis In Silicon Valley.” Presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.

2002 "Cheetos: Consumption and Language Use among Desi Teenagers in Silicon Valley."

Presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.

2000 "Performing Multicultural Day at Silicon Valley High Schools." Presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.