James Paul Gee, "What Is a Human?: Language, Mind, and Culture" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)

May 30, 2023

What Is a Human?

Language, Mind, and Culture

James Paul Gee

Hosted by Daniel Shea

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Summary

Listen to this interview of James Gee, Regents' Professor and Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University. We talk about too much communication, about too much specialization, and about too much narrativization. We also talk about his books Introducing Discourse Analysis: From Grammar to Society (Routledge, 2018) and What Is a Human?: Language, Mind, and Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).

James Gee : "It is absolutely crucial that the early-career researcher, that is, the person who is new to a field and also new to the community of that field — it is absolutely crucial that this researcher know the language of the group. In fact, I asked a biologist once — a very good one, by the way — I asked her, 'How much biology do you need to know to be in your lab?' And she said, 'Not much. You just need to know the beginnings of the language. Then we will sit around a table and talk, and you will learn the language and you will learn biology.'"

Your Host

Daniel Shea

I am committed to helping scientists write at their best. To this end, I founded the Graduate Communication Services, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany. Here I work in the unique role of textician. Want to know more? Contact me at daniel.shea@kit.edu

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