Biographical Sketch

Arthur K. Spears is affiliated with The City University of New York (CUNY). At The City College, he is Professor and Chair in the Anthropology Department and former Director of the Black Studies Program. At The Graduate Center, he is professor in both the Linguistics and the Anthropology Programs.

His Ph.D. in Linguistics was earned at the University of California, San Diego. From Northwestern University, he received an M.A. in Linguistics; and, from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, he received an M.A. with Distinction in International Relations. He earned a B.A. with Honors in French, Spanish, and Political Science from Kansas University.

Dr. Spears works in four languages (English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese), conducting research in the areas of (1) African-American English; (2) pidgin and creole languages, focusing on Haitian and other French-related creoles (3) language and education; and (4) race and ideology.

Prof. Spears is the founder and first editor of Transforming Anthropology, the journal of the Association of Black Anthropologists, a unit of the American Anthropological Association. He was the President (2007-2009) of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, the largest international body devoted to promoting the study of contact languages and their speakers.

Prof. Spears’s recent books and journal special issue include The Haitian Creole Language: History, Structure, Use, and Education (co-editor; Lexington/ Rowman & Littlefield, 2010), Language, Inequality, and Endangerment: African Americans and Native Americans (editor, special issue of Transforming Anthropology, 2010), The Structure and Status of Pidgins and Creoles (co-editor with D. Winford; John Benjamins, 1997), Race and Ideology: Language, Symbolism, and Popular Culture (editor; Wayne State University Press, 1999), Black Linguistics: Language, Society, and Politics in Africa and the Americas (co-editor; Routledge, 2003), and Black Language in the English-Speaking Caribbean and U.S.: History, Structure, Use, and Education (editor; Lexington/ Rowman & Littlefield, in press). Among the journals in which his publications have appeared are Language, Language in Society, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, Transforming Anthropology, American Speech, Études Créoles, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, and the Anthropology and Education Quarterly.

Dr. Spears serves on the editorial panels of leading journals and the Creole Language Library of John Benjamins Publishing Co. He has served also as legal expert in court cases involving race, speech analysis, and the use of controversial words and symbolism.

Believing in the importance of disseminating scholarship, he has presented information connected with his areas of specialization through media appearances on the British Broadcasting Corporation (“The Story of English”), Réseau France Outre-Mer (Groupe France Télévisions), Black Entertainment Television, Gil Noble’s current events talk show on ABC, National Public Radio, WBAI, and Inner City Broadcasting’s WLIB, among other media organizations.

His biography appears in The African American National Biography (edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Oxford University Press).