Rate My Professor Sonja Lanehart

Sonja Lanehart served as Professor and Brackenridge Endowed Chair in Literature and the Humanities in the Department of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio from 2006 to 2019. She earned her B.A. in English with a minor in Educational Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1990, an M.A. in English Language and Literature (Medieval Studies) in 1991, and a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature (English Language and Linguistics) in 1995 from the University of Michigan. Prior to UTSA, she was Assistant Professor of English Language Studies and Linguistics (1995-2002) and Associate Professor (2002-2006) at the University of Georgia.

Lanehart's research specializations include African American Language encompassing discourse, education, identity, and social justice activism; sociolinguistics with critical discourse analysis, critical race theory, and critical sociolinguistics; history of the English language, varieties of English, and African American Vernacular English; and language, ethnicity, identity, culture, society, variation, and change. Key publications feature the edited The Oxford Handbook of African American Language (Oxford University Press, 2015), Sista, Speak! Black Women Kinfolk Talk about Language and Literacy (University of Texas Press, 2002), African American Women’s Language: Discourse, Education, and Identity (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009), and Sociocultural and Historical Contexts of African American English (John Benjamins, 2001). Other contributions include chapters such as “African American Language and Identity: Contradictions and Conundrums” (2015) and the article “Diversity and Intersectionality” (Texas Linguistic Forum, 2009). During her UTSA tenure, she received the Richard S. Howe Excellence in Service to Undergraduate Students Award (2019), President’s Distinguished Diversity Award—Group (2019, 2016), Top-Performing Faculty Award (2016), and Outstanding Faculty Award (2013). Her scholarship has profoundly influenced sociolinguistics by advocating diverse, inclusive, intersectional methodologies.