Peter Githinji E-Mail: githinji@ohio.edu Phone: 740-597-2595 Department: 740-593-4564 Fax: 740-593-2967 Office: Room 349 Gordy Hall Mailing Address: Department of Linguistics 383 Gordy Hall Ohio University Athens, OH 45701 USA

EDUCATION

2006 PhD in Linguistics, Michigan State University. Dissertation Title: Sheng and variation: The negotiation and construction of Layered Identities.

2003 MA in Linguistics, Michigan State University: Thesis: “Language Attitudes: Nairobi People And Sheng

1995 BA in Kiswahili & Literature, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya

CONFERENCES AND PRESENTATIONS

2008 Arresting Language decline: A proposal for trilingualism. A joint presentation with Peter Otiato (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign) during the African Language Teachers Association (ALTA) Conference at Madison, Wisconsin (April 24-18)

2008 Lexical gaps: Lexicographers, you got work to do. Paper presented during the Annual Conference of African Linguists (ACAL) in Athens, Georgia (April 18-20)

2008 Outside the Box: Revitalizing local Knowledge through linguistic hybridity. Presented at the Symposium on “Enabling Local Knowledge in Africa: A Pathway to Social Resilience?” held at Ohio University on January 24 and 25

2007 Socio-linguistic construction of gender among Sheng Speaker in Nairobi. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of African Linguistics (ACAL) at Gainesville, Florida

2007 Maximizing media output in the language classroom: pros and cons of audio-visual cues. Paper presented at the 11th African Language Teachers Association (ALTA) at Granville, Florida

2006 “Changing with Change: Making African Languages relevant to global Demands”. Paper presented with Peter Otiato at the 10th Annual Conference of African Language Teachers Association at Rutgers University

2006 Homecoming: Drawing from the source in the teaching of African Languages. Paper presented at the 10th Annual Conference of African Language Teachers Association

2006 Insults and Folk Humor: Rabelaisian Parodies in Sheng’s Mchongoano: Paper presented at Michigan State University during the Festschrift in Honor of Prof David Dwyer.

2005 “Non-standard features in language pedagogy: to teach or not to teach?” Paper presented at the 9th annual Conference of African Language Teachers Association (ALTA) at Yale University.

2005 Bazes of Sheng and lexical variation: Indices of multiple identities in Nairobi. Colloquium Presentation at Ohio University

2000 Dilemma of Stereotyping Sheng’ and Its Speakers” Paper presented at the 31st New Ways of Analyzing Variation conference at Stanford University, San Francisco, California

PUBLICATIONS

2008 Sexism and (mis)representation of women in Sheng. Journal of African Cultural Studies, 20, 1: 15-22

2008 Ambivalent attitudes: Perception of Sheng and its speakers. Nordic Journal of African Studies 17, 2: 113-13

2007 Mchongoano verbal duels: Risky Discourse and sociocultural commentary. In Kimani Njogu and G. Oluoch Olunya 2007 Cultural Productions and Social Change in Kenya: Building Bridges pp 89-109

2006 Bazes and their shibboleths: Lexical variation and Sheng speakers’ identity in Nairobi. Article submitted to the Nordic Journal of African Languages, pdf

2006 The Asymmetric Nature of Bantu Applicative Constructions”, pdf Article co-authored with Deo Ngonyani. Lingua116: 31-63

In Press

Sexism and (mis)representation of women in Sheng. To appear In Journal of African Cultural Studies, June 2008 Issue

UNDER REVIEW

Sheng, Styleshifting and Construction of Multifaceted identities. Monograph to be published by VDM Verlag Dr. Müller (2010)

The usual suspects: In defense of urban languages, to appear in "Language in African Performing and Visual Arts" (2009)

Insults and Folk Humor: Verbal Transgressions in Sheng’s Mchongoano, submitted to the Journal of African Language Literature and Teaching (2006)

Courses taught at Ohio University

SWAH: 111/511, 112/512 and 113/513: Elementary Swahili

SWAH: 211 Intermediate Swahili

SWAH 399: Special Studies in Swahili

LING 275: Introduction to Language and Culture

LING 270: Nature of Language

LING 440/540: Introduction to Bilingualism and Bilingual education

WORK EXPERIENCE

2006 External examiner for Gikuyu: Evaluation of oral skill on a student enrolled for intermediate Gikuyu

2005 Department of Linguistics, Michigan State University. Graduate assistant Fall and spring supervised by Prof Deo Ngonyani. Responsibilities includes developing teaching materials and implementing the syllabus for Intermediate Level Swahili (AFR 201A). Other responsibilities includes making and giving exams, quizzes and assignment, supervising Labwork, grading and holding office hours

2000 Swahili Intensive Summer Program hosted by Michigan State University African Studies Center. Swahili Instructor. Responsibilities includes Co-teaching Elementary Swahili (AFR 101A), Intermediate (AFR 201A), and Advanced (AGR 450A) with other Swahili instructors. Responsibilities includes grading and holding office hours

2002 Summer Cooperative African Language Institute (SCALI) at Michigan State University, African Studies Center. Instructor, suprevised by Deo Ngonyani. Responsibilities includes developing and implementing course materials for Advanced Swahili. (AFR 450A). Other responsibilities includes grading and holding office hour

Nov. 1997 Twaweza Communications, Nairobi, Kenya. Research Assistant

Sept. 1999 Worked under Prof Kimani Njogu in a variety of projects. Responsibilities includes

¨ Proof-reading and assessing Swahili manuscripts

¨ Field data collection, pre- test analysis, and conducting oral interviews

¨ Transcription, translation and report writing

¨ Swahili Literary Criticism

1999 Institute Of Economic Affairs, Nairobi Kenya. Research Assistant in Kenya Scenarios Project. Worked under Bantu Mwaura. Reponsibilities includes collecting both primary and secondary data for final compilation of the report

Jul. – Sept 1998 Apex Communications, Nairobi Kenya. Research Assistant in the social mobilization for the Polio immunization campaign. Worked under Lawrence Gikaru— Director and the owner of Apex communications. Responsibilities includes doing fieldwork, project assessment, data compilation and translation

SKILLS

Computer MS Word, Powerpoint

Languages Swahili, Kikuyu, German, and English

MEMBERSHIP

African Studies Association

African Language Teachers Association

LINKS

For current news on Kenya

Daily Nation: http://www.nationmedia.com

East African Standard: http://www.eastandard.net/

Kenyatta University http://www.ku.ac.ke/

Starehe boys center http://www.starehe.net