Nate Dumas, Graduate Student

Sociocultural Anthropology

Research

My research explores the US, English-speaking stuttering communities, specifically formed through the chapters of the National Stuttering Association.  I investigate the linguistic, pragmatic, and ideological dimensions of their speaking rituals (such as "introductions" and the "speaking circle") and attempt to understand how these rituals allow members to co-construct conceptions of "speaker-hood," "hearer," and "fluency" that are at work in mundane and formal interactions.