People tend to think about age differences, like gender and racial differences, as biologically driven. Through a series of captivating stories about life in the Marshall Islands, Elise Berman shows that in many ways children are not born different, but learn to be different. Each story in the book examines a central mystery: Who gets to adopt the baby? Will Roka keep his lollipop? Who is telling the truth? Through these dramas, large and small, Berman immerses readers of “Talking Like Children: Language and the Production of Age in the Marshall Islands” into everyday life in a small village on an atoll in the Pacific Ocean. As the mysteries unfold, Berman also shows how age differences emerge through the decisions people make, the emotions they feel, the things that they say, and the power they gain. Berman shows how children learn to talk like children, as people who are different from adults.
Berman will discuss her research at the Personally Speaking talk at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 26, virtually. Please note the changes in venue and program times.
Register at clas.charlotte.edu/PS and a Zoom link will be sent shortly before the event.
Berman is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and first visited the Marshall Islands in 2003, working as an English and math teacher. She has returned repeatedly since then, and is now working on a project with Marshallese communities in the U.S. She also is studying migration to the New South and linguistic inequality in schools and has recently published on this topic. Her research focuses generally on the politics of language and exchange, socialization, and racialization, with an examination of children’s cultures, language, lying, socialization, and age. She has worked with and studied ultra-Orthodox Jews, K’iche’ Maya, and Marshall Islanders.
The 2021-2022 Personally Speaking Series
The last two talks in the 2021-2022 Personally Speaking published experts series will be held at The Dubois Center at UNC Charlotte Center City. In those spring 2022 talks, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences researchers will engage audiences in conversations about racial identity in Argentina and geology’s impact in the Civil War. These are planned as hybrid in-person/virtual events, assuming that COVID-19 restrictions will allow the face-to-face event. The presentations will be recorded.
“Hiding in Plain Sight: Black Women, the Law, and the Making of a White Argentine Republic,” Erika Edwards. Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022
“Rocks and Rifles: The Influence of Geology on Combat and Tactics during the American Civil War,” Scott Hippensteel. Tuesday, March 29, 2022
