LANGUAGE IN THE MIDDLE: CLASS AND SEXUAL DISCOURSE IN DELHI DR. KIRA HALL PROFESSOR OF LINGUISTICS AND ANTHROPOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER FEBRUARY 19, 2021 | 2.00 TO 3.30 PM (PST) PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE FOR THIS TALK. REGISTER HERE AFTER REGISTERING, YOU WILL RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION EMAIL CONTAINING INFORMATION ABOUT JOINING THE ZOOM MEETING. Abstract This talk draws from ethnographic research among youth in Delhi’s expanding middle classes to call for more sociolinguistic attention to the role played by sexuality discourse in the reproduction of class relations. The discussion highlights the centrality of the middle classes to sustaining as well as shifting sexual normativity, suggesting that sexual norms are in part constituted through everyday discourses that situate middle class subjectivity between two class extremes. Specifically, the talk tracks how Hinglish, as a “sexy” mixed-language alternative to a class system polarized by English and Hindi, came to replace English as the preferred language of sexuality, challenging an enduring colonialist legacy of vernacular censorship. Two case studies are presented: the first involving a bisexual woman who confronts elitist discourse by cursing in Hindi; the second involving a transgender man struggling to convince the medical establishment of his worthiness for sexual reassignment surgery. While the protagonists in both narratives loosely belong to Delhi’s expanding middle classes and are speakers of what may be characterized as Hinglish, they are not equally able to master the sexuality discourse that has become indexical of upward mobility. Dr. Kira Hall’s work is situated at the intersection of linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics, two closely related fields focused on the relationship between language and society. Dr. Hall’s research examines issues of language and social identity in India and United States, particularly as they materialize within hierarchies of gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic class and shift under processes of globalization. This lecture is hosted by the Department of Linguistics and Asian/Middle Eastern Languages and co-sponsored by the Department of Women’s Studies with support from IRA funds. .