User:Theborellikid/sandbox

Dr. Renee A. Blake started and completed her tertiary level education at Stanford University in Stanford, California. At Stanford, Dr. Blake was conferred her B.Sc in Biology in May of the year 1987. Subsequently she received her M.A. in Linguistics in May 1993 and later her Ph.D. in that same field in May of the year 1997. During this time Dr. Blake was also a student of language and thought at various institutions worldwide. She has undertaken additional coursework at University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, University of the West Indies Cave Hill campus, Barbados and at Universita per Stranieri, Perugia, Italy. Dr. Blake is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Africana Studies in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. In addition she serves as a Faculty Fellow in Residence.

Through the years, Dr. Blake has made various contributions to the field of Linguistics. Her research is focused on issues of language contact, race, ethnicity and class within several US communities and throughout the Caribbean and her areas of specialization include, sociolinguistics, language variation, Pidgins and Creoles and African American Vernacular English which suggests a descriptive (i.e. the way in which people actually speak) as opposed to a prescriptive (i.e. the way in which people ought to speak.) Furthermore, in the spring semester of 2004 Dr. Blake was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan.

A recipient of the Fulbright Grant, Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellowship and National Science Foundation grant, Dr. Blake established a web based project called, “Voices of New York” which examines the extent to which specific languages of various ethnic groups in the city are being sustained or lost. Dr. Blake has enjoyed success with the publications of various articles on the role of language in the course of social interactions and relations.