Aris M. Clemons
I am sociolinguist. Soy sociolingüísta. There are many ways to define what it means to be a sociolinguist. I usually say this - everyone, in every language and form of speaking, has an accent. I study how languages (mostly Spanish and English) vary across different social groups and individuals and how the variation is perceived, judged, and policed by others.
I am an Assistant Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I hold a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics as well as a Graduate Portfolio in Mexican American and Latina/o Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. My research focuses on linguistic production and perception in U.S. Latinx communities. My work is interdisciplinary, connecting sociolinguistics, bilingualism, social psychology, and community formation/maintenance.
As a researcher and educator I am dedicated to making linguistic research accessible to the public, especially to the communities that often serve as the subjects of analyses. I have been fortunate to interview with public radio and local and national news outlets with the hope of reframing academic scholarship for public audiences.
Aris M. Clemons