Geneva Smitherman Collegiate Professor of English Language and Literature; Professor of Linguistics; Professor of Education; Arthur F Thurnau Professor
she/her
About
Professor Anne Curzan is Geneva Smitherman Collegiate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Michigan. She also has a faculty appointment in the Linguistics Department and the School of Education. Professor Curzan specializes in research on the history of English and has also published on language and gender, corpus linguistics, lexicography, and pedagogy. Her best-selling book, Says Who? A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words, was published in March 2024 and has been featured on popular podcasts and in national newspapers. Her previous books include Fixing English: Prescriptivism and Language History (2014) and Gender Shifts in the History of English (2003). She is also co-author with Michael Adams of the textbook How English Works: A Linguistic Introduction. Professor Curzan appears weekly on "That's What They Say" on Michigan Radio, blogged for Lingua Franca for eight years, and was co-editor of the Journal of English Linguistics for nine years.
Field(s) of Study
- History of English, language and gender, corpus linguistics, historical sociolinguistics, lexicography, pedagogy, composition and rhetoric, Old and Middle English language and literature
