Linguistics and Social Justice: Language, Education, and Human Rights
This MIT seminar looks at how linguistic research connects to real-world language discrimination and access to education. It starts from a stark fact: roughly 40% of the world's children are taught in a language that is not their home language, often including languages linguists study extensively but rarely make useful to the communities who speak them. Readings and discussion cover efforts by linguists and educators to build more inclusive research practices, expand access to mother-tongue education, and push back against policies that penalize speakers of minority and Global South languages. The course draws on case studies from multiple continents and asks students to weigh the responsibilities linguists have toward the speech communities they study. Materials include a syllabus and reading list from MIT OpenCourseWare; there are no video lectures, and the course is free to access with no certificate offered.