Bambi Schieffelin

rdf:langString Bambi Schieffelin

rdf:langString Bambi B. Schieffelin (born April 26, 1945) is a linguistic anthropologist and professor emerita at New York University in the department of Anthropology. Along with Elinor Ochs, she pioneered the field of language socialization. In addition, she has written extensively about language contact, language ideology, literacy, Haitian Creole, and missionization. She received her undergraduate and doctorate degrees in anthropology from Columbia University, and masters and postdoctorate in developmental psychology. She held a faculty position in the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education until 1986, when she was denied tenure within the context of an alleged culture of sexism and personal vendettas influencing decisions at the school. Several other faculty members (including William Labov, Lila R. Gleitman, Fred L. Block, and Frank Furstenberg) severed ties with the School of Education to protest her tenure denial, citing her "international reputation" and "work... of the highest quality". She has carried out extensive fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, often in collaboration with ethnomusicologist Steven Feld. Together they compiled a dictionary of Kaluli, a Bosavi language. She has recently researched youth language use in instant messaging and text messaging, particularly the use of the word like. She is currently interested in the linguistic aspects evidentiality, focusing on how children learn culturally appropriate ways of referencing sources of knowledge.