Anne Curzan

Professor Curzan is an expert on the history of the English language, and in addition to studying how the language itself has changed over the past 1500 years, she explores how attitudes about words and grammar have shifted. She describes herself as a fount of random linguistic information about the English language, which she enjoys sharing online and on the radio. Professor Curzan can be found talking about language on the weekly show “That’s What They Say” on local NPR station Michigan Public; she also wrote biweekly (in the every two weeks sense!) for six years for the blog Lingua Franca on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s website. Her TED talk “What makes a word ‘real’?” has more than 2.1 million views on the national TED talk site.

Professor Curzan is an award-winning scholar and teacher. She received the University’s Henry Russel Award for outstanding research and teaching in 2007, as well as the Faculty Recognition Award in 2009 and the 2012 John Dewey Award for undergraduate teaching. She has published multiple books and dozens of articles, and she has created the audio/video courses “Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins” and “English Grammar Boot Camp” for Wondrium (formerly The Great Courses). Her best-selling recent book Says Who? A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words has been featured on popular podcasts and in national newspapers. Her academic books include Fixing English: Prescriptivism and Language History (2014) and Gender Shifts in the History of English (2003). Her co-authored textbook, How English Works: A Linguistic Introduction, is currently in its third edition. In 2016 she received the Linguistics, Language, and the Public Award from the Linguistic Society of America.