Language, Identity and Justice

The Anthropolitical Worlds of Ana Celia Zentella

Adam Schwartz editor Bonnie Urciuoli editor Ana Celia Zentella editor Cristian Aquino-Sterling editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Channel View Publications Ltd

Publishing:17th Nov '26

£29.95

This title is due to be published on 17th November, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Language, Identity and Justice cover

This book presents key pieces of Ana Celia Zentella’s work in anthropolitics, the lived experience of language use, and activism. It traces how her thinking has evolved and how her activism has informed her academic work, and vice versa.

With linguistic and cultural diversity increasingly under attack, Ana Celia Zentella’s work becomes more and more poignant

Now more than ever, questions of the interplay and interdependency between academic work and activism are crucial. This book traces these questions through the work of one thinker, Ana Celia Zentella, who has made important contributions to the development of both linguistics and anthropology over the course of her career. The book presents key pieces of her anthropolitical work, the lived experience of language use, and activism. It traces how her thinking has evolved and how her activism has informed her academic work, and vice versa. The book will be both a valuable introduction to her work for new students, and an accessible selection of reading for scholars wishing to trace the development of key current debates in linguistics and anthropology. 

Zentella’s collected essays remain essential readings in sociolinguistics and bilingualism. In today’s contested climate, these writings illuminate how language shapes identity, inequality, and belonging. Through rich ethnographic insight, these writings challenge deficit perspectives while affirming bilingual lives’ dignity, creativity, and complexity. This volume must be read by both new and established scholars. * Guadalupe Valdés, Stanford University, USA *
Ana Celia Zentella has dedicated her career to advancing linguistic justice through groundbreaking studies of language, race, and identity. Originating in bilingual barrios yet resonating globally, her scholarship reveals how anthropolitical forces constrain marginalized speakers while inspiring generations to pursue linguistic liberty and human dignity for all. * John Baugh, Rice University, USA *

ISBN: 9781836684640

Dimensions: 234mm x 156mm x 13mm

Weight: 349g

230 pages