Karen Adams

Karen Adams is Emeritus Professor in the Department of English at Arizona State University, where she has been a key figure in Linguistics since joining as Assistant Professor in 1984, advancing to Associate Professor in 1990 and Professor in 1999. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Linguistics, along with a B.A. with distinction from the Honors Program in Political Science, all from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Adams has held significant administrative roles, including Director of Graduate Studies in English since 2016, Associate Chair of the department from 2013 to 2016 and in interim capacities in 2008-2010, and Director of the Program for Southeast Asian Studies during 1998-1999, 2001-2002, and 2004-2006. As affiliated faculty, she contributes to Women and Gender Studies, the Asian Pacific American Studies Program, the Ph.D. program in Applied Linguistics, and the Center for Asian Research, previously also serving in Southeast Asian Studies and the Ph.D. Program in Speech and Hearing Sciences.

Adams's research centers on sociolinguistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, Southeast Asian languages, and political discourse, examining language in its social and linguistic contexts. Her major publications include the monograph Systems of Numeral Classification in the Mon-Khmer, Nicobarese and Aslian Subfamilies of Austroasiatic (1989, Pacific Linguistics) and edited volumes such as Perspectives on Official English (1990), Papers from the Second Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Society (1994), Papers from the Sixth Annual Meeting (2001), Papers from the Seventh Annual Meeting (2004), SEALS XIII (2007), and Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Lao Studies (2010). Notable articles encompass Gang Graffiti as a Discourse Genre (Journal of Sociolinguistics, 1997, with Anne Winter), Creating Inequality: Breaking the Rules in Debates (Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 1990, with Carole Edelsky), The Influence of Non-Austroasiatic Languages on Numeral Classification in Austroasiatic (Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1991), and Surviving Katrina and Its Aftermath (Journal of Cultural Geography, 2008). Adams has earned awards including the Founder's Day Faculty Achievement Award in Research (2004) and Service (2011) from the ASU Alumni Association, Diversity Award from the City of Tempe (2006), Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History (2006), and Best Adaptation to Stated Theme Award from the Museum Association of Arizona (2006). Her research featured in Psychology Today (1992) and she was nominated for the 1990 Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize.

Professional Email: karen.adams@asu.edu