Faculty Profile

headshot of Bryan Kirschen

Bryan Kirschen

Associate Professor; Associate Professor; Chair of Romance Languages; Associate Professor of Spanish Linguistics

Translation Research and Instruction Program (TRIP); The Linguistics Program; Romance Languages and Literatures
LN 2210

Background

Bryan Kirschen is chair of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, where he is associate professor of Spanish and Linguistics and holds a joint title with the Linguistics program; he is also affiliated faculty of the Translation Research and Instruction Program and the Department of Judaic Studies. Kirschen is a sociolinguist specializing in the Spanish language. He has published on Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) and the use of Spanish in the United States. His scholarship appears in journals including Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, Language and Communication, Spanish in Context, Heritage Language Journal, Journal of Jewish Languages, Language and Linguistics Compass, and Hispania.

Kirschen is also engaged in digital projects such as Documenting Judeo-Spanish. Along with Dina Danon (History and Judaic Studies), he co-directs Binghamton University's Ladino Collaborative ("Ladino Lab"), an initiative that offers undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty training in reading Ladino texts and paleography. The project also offers a language apprenticeship program in which students are paired with native speakers from around the world. The project is supported by a Public Humanities Grant from Binghamton University's Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities.

Publications

  • Kirschen, B. (2023). Ladino: Minority Language and Culture of Sephardic Jews. In Y. Beale-Rivaya (Ed.), Minority and Minoritized Languages and Cultures (pp. 1–17). Texas State University Press Books. https://pressbooks.txst.edu/minoritylanguages/part/ladino/
  • Kirschen, B. (2021). Consideraciones lingüísticas: los sefardíes y el judeo-español a partir de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. In F. Gil (Ed.), El español sefardí como una variedad de la lengua española (pp. 153–177). Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (ANLE).
  • Kirschen, B. (2021). Spanish and Ladino in Contact in the United States. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 14 (2), 385–410. https://doi.org/10.1515/shll-2021-2049
  • Kirschen, B. (2019). Language Ideology and Practice among Judeo-Spanish-Speaking Sephardim in Seattle and South Florida. Language and Communication, 69, 84–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2019.08.002
  • Kirschen, B. (2018). Sociolinguistics of Judeo-Spanish. Language and Linguistics Compass, 12 (3), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12274

Education

  • PhD, University of California, Los Angeles
  • MAT, Stony Brook University
  • MA, Middlebury College
  • BA, MA, Binghamton University

Research Interests

  • Sociolinguistics
  • Contact Linguistics
  • Language Variation
  • Documentary Linguistics
  • Language Ideologies
  • Sephardic Studies
  • Aljamiado Texts

Teaching Interests

  • Introduction to Spanish Linguistics (Span 351)
  • Spanish Phonetics and Phonology (Span 480D)
  • Spanish Syntax (Span 451)
  • Spanish Sociolinguistics (Span 480F)
  • Spanish in the United States (Span 480A)
  • Contact Linguistics (TRIP 580V; Ling 481C)
  • Language Endangerment and Linguistic Revitalization (Trip 582A; Ling 480Y)
  • Introduction to Judeo-Spanish (Univ 101)

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