• About me

    I document the difficult work people do to understand each other in multilingual legal spaces.

    At least one in five persons residing in the United States speaks a language otherthan English at home; 85% of individuals in U.S. immigration courts require the services of an interpreter. As a legal and linguistic anthropologist, I consider the variety of professional training, experience, and perspectives on working across languages under the pressure of limited time and resources. Working as the ABF/NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in Law and Inequality, I put the professional perspectives of legal and language professionals in conversation and on equal ground for better outcomes for users of the justice system. I search for evidence that shows us how to create more effective, equitable working environments for courtroom professionals, and better language services for the people who rely on them. I was recently interviewed as the American Bar Foundation's Featured Researcher, which you can read here.

     

    My book, tentatively titled Privatizing Language Work: Interpreters and Access in U.S. Immigration Court, uses mixed ethnographic methods to show how interpreters’ labor activism points to policy solutions for linguistic inclusion. Working at the nexus of language, labor, and the law, the ethnography attends to understudied structural aspects of multilingual legal spaces – including how workers resist those structures, offer alternative visions for institutional culture and practice, and even begin to make those visions real.

     

    Research has been generously funded by the National Science Foundation Program in Law and Social Sciences, the Social Science Research Council, the UC Consortium on Social Science and the Law, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute.

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    American Bar Foundation, Chicago

     

    I am currently appointed as the American Bar Foundation/NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in Law and Inequality, where I am researching how best to train law students to work with interpreters. Through this work, I continue my focus on language, law, and labor with ethnographic attention to how law school clinics recruit and employ language services.

    At the American Bar Foundation, I am focusing on my book project and devloping new research. In addition to my research and writing, I participate in committee work. I have co-chaired the weekly speaker series, serve on the editorial board of our flagship journal Law and Social Inquiry, and steer a sustainability committee.

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    University of California, Los Angeles

    Ph.D. 2021

    Dissertation Title: Privatizing Language Work: Interpreters and Access in Los Angeles Immigration Court

     

    Dissertation Committee:
    Paul Kroskrity, Department of Anthropology
    Norma Mendoza-Denton, Department of Anthropology
    Jessica Cattelino, Department of Anthropology
    Ingrid Eagly, UCLA Law School

     

     

    Select Publications

    Published Work
     

    “The Invisible Labor and Ethics of Interpreters.” Annual Review of Anthropology, on view ahead of publication here, in print October 2023. Co-authored with Laura Kunreuther.

     

    “Linguistic Lives as Working Lives: Conducting Lingual Life Histories for the Labor Movement.” Journal of Anthropological Research 77.1 (2021): 52-66.

     

    “Lingual Life Histories: Introduction to the Special Issue.” with Edwin Everhart. Journal of Anthropological Research 77.1 (2021): 10-15.

     

    “Communicating in Times of Crisis.” Anthropology News website, August 16, 2018. DOI: 10.1111/AN.947.

     

     

    Under Review
     

    “I would just like you to interpret what I’m saying.”: Language Ideological Regimes as Working Conditions in Los Angeles Immigration Court.” Under Review at Political and Legal Anthropology Review.

     

     

    In Preparation

     

    Privatizing Language Work: Interpreter Labor and Access in Los Angeles Immigration Court. Prospectus for book manuscript available upon request.

     

    Select Recent Presentations

    “A Public Good and a Lost Commons: U.S. Immigration Court Interpreters’ Challenge to Privatizing Communication”

    Panelist American Anthropological Association Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Fall 2023

     

    “What is being “Accessed” in Language Access?: Quality Communication as a Public Good Over Language as a Private Object”
    Panelist, American Anthropological Association Meeting, Seattle, Washington. Fall 2022.

     

    “Privatized Language Services in U.S. Immigration Courts: Motivations for the Failure to Communicate” Panelist, Law and Society Association Meeting, Lisbon, Portugal. Summer 2022.

     

    Teaching Quality Communication: The Need for Professional Solidarity Between Legal Professionals and Interpreters in the United States”
    Invited Panelist, Reimagining Justice: From Ideas to Impact, Chicago, IL. Spring 2022.

     

    “Handling Requests for Emergency Language Services Ethically: Professional Tools for Scholars in the Legal Arena.”

    Society for Linguistic Anthropology Meeting, Boulder, Colorado. Spring 2022.

     

    “Learning the Mechanics of Compassion: Cross-Linguistic Training in Clinical Legal Education.”
    Fellows Research Advisory Committee of the American Bar Foundation Meeting Fall 2021.

     

    “Language Justice: Practicing the Mechanics of Compassion Across Languages.”
    State of Michigan Justice for All Commission Meeting Fall 2021.

    Research and Work Experience

    Beyond my own research, I have served as a Graduate Student Researcher for several sociolegal scholars and anthropologists. I worked under Professor M. Kamari Clarke, a legal anthropologist whose work on human rights and international criminal law tribunals has had wide impact across disciplines. I have worked as a Graduate Student Researcher for Professor of Anthropology Jessica Cattelino, Department of Anthropology, UCLA. I assisted in research at the UCLA Downtown Labor Center, working under Professor Noah Zatz, UCLA Law School. In these roles I have conducted ethnographic research, grant development and writing, and conference planning and coordination.

     

    Additionally, I served as the Liaison for the Haines Digital Lab, a center for scholars of social interaction. In this role I ensure students and professors have access to software that supports data analysis for their research, and create educational materials to help them get the most out of the software and resources we offered.

  • Contact

    I interview a variety of language and legal professionals about their experiences with communication,

    and I'd like to hear your story.

    American Bar Foundation
    750 North Shore Drive
    4th Floor
    Chicago IL 60611