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Jim Michnowicz

Head

Department of World Languages & Cultures

Withers Hall 105

View CV 

Bio

Dr. Jim Michnowicz is Head of the Department of World Languages and Cultures and Professor of Hispanic linguistics at NC State University. He received his Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics at Penn State University in 2006, with a focus on language contact, variation and sociolinguistics. He has been on faculty at NC State since 2006, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Hispanic linguistics. In 2018, he received the College of Humanities & Social Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award, and was inducted into the Academy of Outstanding Teachers at NC State in 2019.

His research focuses on language contact with Spanish, both in Yucatan, Mexico and in North Carolina, and his publications examine a range of phonetic and morphosyntactic features in order to better understand the linguistic outcomes of different contexts of language and dialect contact. Other research interests include language shift and maintenance, along with systems of address forms in the Spanish-speaking world.

Office Hours

  • Click here to make an appointment with me.

Projects

  • The development of a new bilingual dialect of Spanish in NC (with Rebecca Ronquest and various students, NCSU)
  • A real time analysis of language change in Yucatan Spanish

Extension and Community Engagement

  • Community engagement at the North Carolina State Fair and the Fiesta del Pueblo
    • With the North Carolina Language and Life Project
    • Share research and debunk linguistic myths about Spanish in NC with both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking citizens at the events

Responsibilities

Department Head, Department of World Languages & Cultures

Research Publications

Books

Peer-reviewed articles/chapters

Funded Research

  • Language and Social Networks in Raleigh-Durham (with Rebecca Ronquest and Robin Dodsworth)
    • $4000 from the Provost’s Professional Experience Program
  • The emergence and analysis of large bilingual speech communities (with Rebecca Ronquest and Robin Dodsworth)
    •  $4000 from the CHASS Faculty Research and Development Program (FRDP)
  • A pilot study of Spanish in Raleigh-Durham (with Rebecca Ronquest)
    • $4000 from the CHASS  Faculty Research and Development Program (FRPD)

Presentations

Recent presentations/invited talks:

  • Invited plenary discussant, 2023 Inaugural SEC Spanish Consortium Conference.  University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS. March, 2023 (Virtual).
  • “El español en el sudeste de los Estados Unidos: La creación de una nueva comunidad bilingüe”. Invited talk at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA. October 2022. (Virtual).
  • “Spanish in the Southeast: Insights and future directions”. Invited plenary address at the Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics, Georgia Tech/University of Georgia, Atlanta, GA. April 2022. (Virtual)
  • Michnowicz, Jim. “A variable swarm analysis of Yucatan Spanish: the intersection of three traditional dialect forms”. Presentation at the Spanish linguistics in North Carolina/the Southeast 2023 conference at Davidson College. February, 2023.
  • Michnowicz, Jim, David Natvig & Joseph Salmons. “Yucatan Spanish VOT: Bilingual phonological representations and sociophonetics”. Presentation at the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) 2023 conference in Denver, CO. January, 2023.
  • Vaughn, Stevi, Rebecca Ronquest and Jim Michnowicz. “Ven, vení, venga: a study of el voseo in North Carolina”. Presentation at the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium 2022 conference at Arizona State University. November, 2022 (Virtual).
  • Michnowicz, Jim. “Real and apparent (time) changes in Yucatan Spanish: the case of /bdg/”. Presentation at the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium 2021 conference at Wake Forest University. October, 2021 (Virtual).
  • Michnowicz, Jim & Rebecca Ronquest. “Spanish Language Shift and Maintenance in North Carolina: Insights from a large-class survey”. Presentation at the Spanish linguistics in North Carolina (SLINKI) 2021 conference at NC State University. March, 2021 (Virtual).

Education

Ph.D. Spanish Linguistics Penn State University 2006

M.A. Spanish Ohio University 1998

B.S.Ed. Spanish Education Ohio University 1996

  • College of Humanities & Social Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award 2018
  • NC State Academy of Outstanding Teachers 2019