Jennifer Roth-Gordon

Jennifer Roth-Gordon is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arizona’s School of Anthropology. Her work focuses on linguistic and cultural anthropology, particularly in Brazil. She explores racial ideologies, whiteness studies, and the intersection of language with power and identity. Her seminal work, Race and the Brazilian Body, examines how racial hierarchies manifest in everyday language and bodily perceptions in Rio de Janeiro.

Her current project, Precious White Lives, investigates how middle-class parenting strategies in Rio reinforce racial privilege through the protection of white comfort and life. Roth-Gordon’s research spans ethnographic discourse analysis, language ideologies, and the sociopolitical dimensions of racial inequality. She teaches courses on race, language, whiteness studies, and ethnographic methods.

Her publications include monographs, edited volumes, and peer-reviewed articles on topics ranging from Brazilian hip-hop’s linguistic resistance to globalized slang and social media dynamics. While no awards are explicitly listed in the text, her contributions have reshaped critical understandings of race and language in Latin America.