The Department of Anthropology is very proud to announce that Judy Irvine has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. This is a tremendous and well-deserved honor, and shows appreciation of her many years of excellent, innovative work.

Professor Irvine, the Edward Sapir Collegiate Professor of Linguistic Anthropology, is a major figure in anthropological theory and analysis, both within her subfield of linguistics and in sociocultural anthropology as a whole. Her work addresses the relationship between language and other social forms. Irvine challenges cultural anthropologists to bring linguistics into their understandings of face-to-face political interaction even as she urges linguists to consider the political underpinnings of language diversity. Irvine’s research has been at the forefront of linguistic anthropology since the1970s. She has reshaped that field. In particular, her studies have redefined key conceptual frameworks (as in her work on formality in language use) and opened up new areas of analysis that are now central to the field (as in her work on language and political economy). She is a transformative member of our department, intellectually and collegially.

Professor Irvine is among the 84 members and 21 foreign associates from 14 countries who are newly elected. She, along with three other University faculty elected this year, brings the total active NAS members on U-M's faculty to 29.

https://twitter.com/theNASciences/status/727493254720049152

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a private, nonprofit organization of the country’s leading researchers and provides science, technology and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations. The NAS recognizes and promotes outstanding science through election to membership; publication in its journal, PNAS; and its awards, programs, and special activities.