Faculty Profiles

Kara Becker is Professor of Linguistics at Reed College. Kara is a sociolinguist, a variationist, and a dialectologist, whose scholarship concerns regional and social varieties of American English. Kara received a B.A. in Linguistics and an M.A. in Educational Linguistics from Stanford University, and Ph.D. in Linguistics from New York University. She joined the Reed faculty in 2010, and teaches courses on language and society, including Dialects of English, Contact Languages, Language, Sex, Gender and Sexuality, and African American English. Kara talks often to the media about linguistic diversity in the U.S., most commonly about the New York City dialect, but also about West Coast dialects (Portland Monthly article). More information on Kara’s research interests, teaching, and media presence can be found on her website.