Assistant Professor Nicholas Subtirelu addresses the question ‘Can Quantitative Research Contribute to Struggles for Social Justice?

Linguistics Professor Nic Subtirelu recently presented a lecture titled ‘Can quantitative research contribute to struggles for social justice?’ for the Georgetown Initiative for Multilingual Studies. This lecture, and many others addressing important issues pertaining to multilingualism, is available on the IMS Georgetown YouTube channel.

The IMS is a collaborative effort among faculty and students across different departments and programs at Georgetown. It supports its members in the design, funding, conduct, and communication of research about the benefits of multilingualism in neurocognitive, academic, economic, personal, social, and geopolitical domains, and the misunderstanding and mismanagement of multilingualism, particularly in vulnerable communities. It is directed by Linguistics Professor Lourdes Ortega.

Prof. Subtirelu’s scholarship explores the politics of language education. His recent projects have explored how programs such as the Seal of Biliteracy and dual language immersion programs are often discursively packaged as socially transformative or politically progressive while reproducing white supremacy and other forms of oppression.