Erin Callahan

Dr. Erin Callahan is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Western Carolina University (WCU), housed within the College of Arts and Sciences. She holds a B.A. in Linguistics from Yale University and both an M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University. Her teaching and research focus on sociolinguistics, contact varieties of language, Hispanicized/Latinx English varieties, TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), and English grammar.

Education:

• B.A. in Linguistics, Yale University
• M.A. in English, Duke University
• Ph.D. in English, Duke University

Research Interests: Dr. Callahan explores ethnic dialects of English, language variation and change, and the intersection of sociolinguistics with second language acquisition. She studies contact linguistics, including how languages interact in multilingual environments. Her work often involves field research, such as her early studies on Guadeloupe Creole in the French West Indies.

Professional Background: Before academia, she taught high school Spanish, French, and ESL in North Carolina’s Durham and Granville Counties, as well as EFL at NC State University’s Summer Institute in English and in Querétaro, México. She also worked as a journalist for alternative weekly newspapers in Stamford, CT, and Charlotte, NC.

Labs/Teams: No specific labs or research teams are mentioned in the text.