The first strand of my research began with my dissertation, an ethnographic study into the cultural norms for talk and participation in the African American hair salon. In this study I documented how speakers of African American Vernacular English are seamlessly able to assume culturally defined roles in the discourse within the salon, and use African American linguistic tools for navigating such roles and constructing knowledge. Additionally, this work involves a specified theoretical framework concerning the sociocultural nature of the construction of knowledge, which draws on Vygotsky’s theory of the relationship between language and thinking. Support for the analysis of these data was provided in through a dissertation grant from the Spencer Foundation. In 2002, I was awarded the Promising Researcher Award by the National council of Teachers of English for distinction in research for this dissertation work.

Select papers based on this research:

Majors, Y. (2004). “They thought I was scared of then, but they were scared of me”: Constructions of self/other in a Midwestern hair salon. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 35(2), 167-188.

Majors, Y. (2004). Shoptalk: Teaching and learning in an African American hair salon. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 10(4), 289-310.

Majors, Y. (2001). Passing mirrors: Subjectivity in a Midwestern hair salon. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 32(1), 116-130.