Education
PhD, English, Linguistics concentration, Duke University
MA, English, Linguistics concentration, North Carolina State University
BA, Classical Languages, Duke University
About
A sociolinguist by training, Benjamin Torbert has studied English language variety in North America and the Caribbean, especially regional and socio-ethnic dimensions of language variation. He has authored and co-authored publications on language variety in American Speech, Southern Journal of Linguistics, the de Gruyter World Atlas of Varieties of English, and in other venues, as well as producing and directing a documentary, Hyde Talk. Other interests include pedagogy in the teaching of Linguistics, syntax in English-language literature, and portrayals of vernacular speakers in television and in film. In recent years, he has concentrated on music writing. His extensive body of previews and reviews of classical music and opera can be found at KDHX.org, OperaWire.com, and in the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch. He is a member of Music Critics Association of North America.
Frequently Taught Courses
ENGL 2830 - Introduction to English Language Variation
ENGL 2360 - Hey Have You Read: True Detective
HON 3010 and ENGL 5950 - Language, Ethnicity, and Inequality in HBO's The Wire
HON 3010 - The Linguistic Study of African American English
HON 3010 - Revelations of Grace: The Fiction of Flannery O'Connor
HON 3010 & ENGL 4950 - Opera Literature
ENGL 4800 - Introduction to Linguistics
ENGL 4810 - Descriptive English Grammar
ENGL 4820 - History of the English Language
ENGL 4830 - English Sociolinguistics
ENGL 5800 - Variety in Language
