Eric Henry - Cornell University

Eric Henry

Doctoral Candidate
Department of Anthropology
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853

What language does the modern subject speak? My research concerns the intersection between language and modernity in contemporary China, especially with regards to English language schooling. While it is easy to see the rapid development of English language education as a response to the global realities of capital, it is considerably more difficult to extend this explanation to encompass all the forms that language learning takes; especially in light of the fact that most people never actually use their English outside of the classroom. By looking at the ways English is used in context by its actual learners, I argue in my dissertation that English is actually a strategy of self identification and translation – it locates the individual within the emerging social and economic structure as a forward-looking, properly socialized, cosmopolitan person.

In 2005 I conducted fieldwork in the northeastern city of Shenyang to investigate the English language learning environment and to interview students, teachers, and school administrators. Currently I am writing up my dissertation at Cornell in Ithaca, NY.

Research Interests: Linguistic Anthropology, Asian Studies, Modernity, Cosmopolitanism, Education and Urban Anthropology

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