Dr. Amir Sharifi
Dr. Amir Sharifi
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Title: Lecturer |
Education:
BA: Alamameh Tabatabai University Complex, Tehran, Iran, 1975
Graduate Certificate in TESOL CSULB, 1996
MA in Linguistics, CSULB 1997
PhD in Linguistics, UCLA, 2005.
Teaching/Research Interests:
My central interest is literacy socialization as a cultural model, with a particular focus on how scriptal and calligraphic traditions inform modern literacy and orthographic practices in Iranian communities across time and space. I have done ethnographic research on one of these communities in Los Angeles. My research identifies an intrinsic linkage both ideological and pedagogical between khoshnevisi, “elegant writing” calligraphic traditions and modern literacy practices in a Persian heritage school. This research views mashq or “the practice of copying” with its emphasis on the form of writing as one of the central sites for the socialization of Iranian American children into the aesthetics of Persio-Arabic orthography and its associated ethics. I bring this interest in the intersection of language, education and culture to the courses I teach. I am also keenly interested in linguistic and cultural diversity and rights. Because of my extensive experience and involvement in applied linguistics, I teach a variety of courses dealing with different aspects of linguistics.
Courses Taught:
LING 101: Introduction to the World’s Languages
LING 329: Introduction to Language Acquisition
LING 363i : Implications of Human Language
LING 379: Sociolinguistics
LING 413: Language & Culture
LING 425: Education across Cultures
LING 428: Applied Linguistics
LING 472: Language and Social Justice
Publications and Professional Presentations:
Sharifi, A. (In Press) “The Oral Tradition of Dengbeji, a Kurdish Genre of Verbal Art” in Essays on Kurdish Narratology and Folklore: Oral tradition, History, and Nationalism (Harrassowitz Verlag).
Sheyholislami, J. & Sharifi, A. (2015). “It is the hardest to keep”: Kurdish as a heritage language in the United States. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2016(237), pp. 75-98.
Sharifi, A (2014) . The Role of Heritage Language in Identity Construction Among Diasporic Kurds in the United States. Middle East Studies Association’s annual conference . Washington. DC
Sharifi, A ( 2012) Orthography and Caliigraphic Ideology in an Iranian American Heritage School. In A. Jaffe, J. Androutsopoulos,
M. Sebba, & S. Johnson (Eds.), Orthography as Social Action: Scripts, spelling, identity and power. (pp. 225-255). Berlin: De Gruyter
Sharifi, A. (2006).Socialization of Iranian American children into Khoshnevisi “Elegant handwriting”. ProQuest Dissertation Abstracts.
Sharifi, A. (2005). Panel discussion on socialization of bilingual children (Iranian American) into Persian handwriting. American Ethnological Society, San Diego.
Sharifi, A. (2004). Reported Speech in Persian Conversations and Narratives. Paper presented at University of California, Los Angeles.
Sharifi, A. (2003). Plagiarism and Second Language Writing; paper presented at University of California, Los Angeles.
Professional Activities, Awards, & Affiliations:
- American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL)
- American Anthropological Association (AAA)