Deborah Keller-Cohen

Professor of Linguistics, Women's Studies and Education Ph.D. Linguistics, State University of N.Y. at Buffalo

Contact Information:
Department of Linguistics
440 Lorch Hall 
611 Tappan St. 
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220
734-764-0353
fax: 734-936-3406


Email: dkc@umich.edu

Website:
http://www.umich.edu/~dkc

Scholarly Interests: Narrative, Discourse analysis, Language and Aging, Literacy in modern and colonial America.

Biography: Deborah Keller-Cohen is Professor of Linguistics, Education and Women's Studies. She has conducted research on a wide range of areas using ethnographic, experimental, archival and textual methodologies. As a discourse analyst, her work has explored how people tell their life stories with particular emphasis on individual and gender related differences. Her work on literacy has examined both contemporary and historical American contexts. Her current line of work is concerned with language and aging. One strand examines the relationships among social relations, cognition and language in older adults. In a second line of work with Chris Odato, they have examined factors affecting the evaluation of older and younger individuals’ speech. She is also undertaking a project to explore discourses of aging in American culture.

Publications:

Odato, C. & Keller-Cohen, D. 2009 Evaluating the speech of younger and older adults: Age, gender and speech situation. Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 

Keller-Cohen, D., Fiori, K., Toler, A., & Bybee, D.(2006) Social relations, language and cognition in the ‘oldest old’. Aging & Society, 26(4),585-605. 

Keller-Cohen, D., & Gordon, C. (2003) On Trial: Metaphor in telling the life story. Narrative Inquiry, 13(1) 1-40. 

Keller-Cohen,D. & Dyer,J. (1997) "Intertextuality and the Narrative of Personal Experience". Journal of Narrative and Life History, 7(1-4),147-153 

Keller-Cohen, D. (ed.) (1994) Literacy: Interdisciplinary Conversations. Cresskill, N.J: Hampton Press.