Anna Bax

Anna Bax, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the Department of Linguistics, College of Liberal Arts, California State University, Long Beach. Her research focuses on sociocultural linguistics, exploring intersections of language, identity, power, and social justice. She collaborates with Tu’un Savi (Mixtec) communities in California, addressing language maintenance, diasporic multilingualism, and raciolinguistic ideologies. Her work is supported by an NSF DDRI grant and includes community projects like medical interpreter networks and literacy classes.

• Education: PhD in Linguistics (UC Santa Barbara), MA in Linguistics (UCSB), BA in Linguistics (Pomona College)

Her research spans three main areas: (1) sociolinguistic dynamics in Indigenous Mexican diasporic communities, including youth language shift and identity formation; (2) critical discourse analysis of power structures, such as constructions of “reverse racism”; and (3) linguistics pedagogy for social justice, particularly through UCSB’s SKILLS program. She has published in Journal of Linguistic Anthropology and co-authored works on Bantu syntax.

Bax received the 2017 Society for Linguistic Anthropology Graduate Student Paper Prize for her analysis of racialized discourse. Her teaching emphasizes connecting linguistic theory to real-world social issues.