Oct. 19, 2004
Contact: Andrea Nash
Women’s Studies Program
(805) 756-1525
UCSB Professor to Discuss ‘Nerd Girls’ Oct.
27 at Cal Poly
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Mary Bucholtz, associate professor
of linguistics at
UC Santa Barbara, will talk on “Nerd Girls: Nerdiness as a
Gender Style
Among California Teenage Girls” Wednesday, Oct. 27, from 4
to 5 p.m. in
Room 215 in the Science North Building at Cal Poly.
The presentation will explore ‘nerdiness’ as a gender
style among
European-American female high- school students, focusing on how
nerdy
social practices position nerd girls against the dominant gender
order
at school.
According to Bucholtz, “Nerds opt out of the pursuit of coolness
to
construct an alternative youth style based on intelligence, humor
and
eccentricity. For girls, nerdiness resolves several social quandaries,
enabling the expression of intellectual ability and permitting styles
that are normally off limits as ‘unhip.’”
Bucholtz specializes in the study of language and identity, with
a focus
on gender, race, and youth in the United States.
The talk is cosponsored by the Cal Poly Women's Studies Program
and
English Department as part of the Women’s Studies Program’s
Gender &
Culture lecture series. It is free and open to the public.
For more information, contact the Women's Studies Program office
at
756-1525 or womst@polymail.calpoly.edu.
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