Dr. Kendra Calhoun is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is an interdisciplinary linguistic anthropologist with a background in linguistics, and her scholarship engages fields including media studies, communication, sociology, education, and Black Studies. Her qualitative research explores critical questions about language, identity, and power in face-to-face and mediated contexts, with particular focus on the language, culture, and experiences of Black people in the United States.
Dr. Calhoun’s research on language, race, gender, humor, and activism on social media includes studies of Vine, Tumblr, and TikTok. She has analyzed racial comedy on Vine as a platform-specific genre of African American humor, “everyday online activism” among Black Tumblr users, and linguistic innovation on TikTok in response to content moderation policies. Her dissertation, “Competing Discourses of Diversity and Inclusion: Institutional Rhetoric and Graduate Student Narratives at Two Minority Serving Institutions,” analyzed diversity discourses, ideologies, and practices in U.S. colleges and universities and their impacts on the experiences of graduate students of color.
Research interests

sociolinguistics
linguistic anthropology
power
identity
language, race, and ethnicity
online discourse
digital culture
social and entertainment media
African American language and culture
diversity discourse in higher education

Education

PhD, Linguistics, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2021
BA, English Language & Literature and Experimental Psychology, University of South Carolina, 2013

Website