Sonya Rao, Ph.D.
Linguistic and Legal Anthropologist
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.
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 SchoolSelect 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.
