Arthur K. Spears

Arthur K. Spears is Presidential Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Anthropology at the City University of New York, serving at both City College (Anthropology Department) and The Graduate Center. He earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of California, San Diego, an M.A. in Linguistics from Northwestern University, an M.A. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University, and a B.A. from the University of Kansas. A former president of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, he founded and edited Transforming Anthropology, the journal of the Association of Black Anthropologists.

Dr. Spears' research encompasses linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, pidgin/creole languages, grammatical analysis, race and ethnicity, and decoloniality. His specialized languages are African American English and Haitian Creole, with fluency in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. His influential publications explore language structure, racial ideologies, and the intersection of language with social power dynamics.

He has served as a legal expert in cases involving speech analysis and racial dynamics, and contributed to documentary films including 'Talking Black in America' and 'Signing Black in America' as Associate Producer.