User:Castilibrary2/Vershawn Ashanti Young
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Vershawn Ashanti Young (also known as Dr. Vay) is a researcher of language and performance. Young is known for encouraging "code-meshing" instead of code switching.[1] [2] His research shows that it is not good for people to have to speak and write in a different way at work or at school than they write and speak at home.[1] Young argues that when schools require "Standard English" it is harmful to students.[1] Instead, professional and school writing should include culture-specific communication styles.[1]
Young is a professor of Black Studies at the University of Waterloo.[3] Young works in two departments at the university: the Department of Communication Arts and the Department of English Language and Literature.[4] He specializes in African American English.[3] He also studies how ideas about gender appear in language.[5]
Early life
[change | change source]His mother was a single parent.[6] She completed college and graduate school when he was a child.[6] She taught him to love reading.[6] Reading books made it hard to make friends.[6] His school did not expect him to succeed because he was Black.[6] He discover that he could get better grades by "acting white," but then Black classmates did not like him.[7] He had to find his own way of behaving because he did not fit in anywhere.[6]
Young grew up in the Horner Projects in Chicago.[8] He went to college. Then he completed law school at Mitchell Hamline College of Law and got a Ph.D in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago.[3]
Career
[change | change source]Young taught English and Drama in a Chicago high school.[3] [6] He thought the school wanted him to teach Black students to act white.[6] But he wanted students to do good academic work in their own style of language.[9]
Young became a school principal. He began doing some work at the University of Chicago.[3] He was teaching other school principals.[3] Classes at the university were free for university employees.[3] He decided to get his Ph.D. in English because it did not cost money.[3] He liked university work a lot.[3]
Young has been a professor at the University of Iowa and the University of Kentucky.[10] He is now a professor in the Department of Communication Arts and the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo.[4] He chaired the Convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication in 2019. [9]
He also writes and performs one-man shows.[11][12]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Khadka, Santosh (2019-02-25). Multiliteracies, Emerging Media, and College Writing Instruction. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-53643-4.
- ↑ Jones, Rodney H.; Themistocleous, Christiana (2022-02-03). Introducing Language and Society. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-49892-0.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Vershawn Ashanti Young, Rhetoric Professor. (2017, November 3). Oberlin Review, The: Oberlin College (OH). Available from NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Vershawn Young". University of Waterloo English Language and Literature Department. 2016-07-25. Retrieved 2024-02-01.
- ↑ Neal, Mark Anthony (2013-04-22). Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities. NYU Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-8147-5836-6.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 Hunter, Max A. (2022-09-30). Speech Is My Hammer: Black Male Literacy Narratives in the Age of Hip-Hop. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-6667-0309-2.
- ↑ Pinto, Laura E. (2013-06-05). From Discipline to Culturally Responsive Engagement: 45 Classroom Management Strategies. Corwin Press. ISBN 978-1-4522-8517-7.
- ↑ Lippi-Green, Rosina (2012-03-15). English with an Accent: Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-59729-9.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Fletcher, Jennifer (2023-10-10). Writing Rhetorically: Fostering Responsive Thinkers and Communicators. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-003-84168-5.
- ↑ Whaley, D. (2015, March 8). Create a space to discuss, address inequalities - GUEST COLUMN. Gazette, The (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City, IA), p. 26. Available from NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current
- ↑ Rob Cline, B. (2009, March 22). 'Fences' builds on power of writing, performances. Gazette, The (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City, IA), p. 4A. Available from NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current.
- ↑ "About". vershawn-young. Retrieved 2024-02-01.