Dominika M Baran, Associate Professor of English

My research interests encompass language, identity, and migration, as well as language, gender, and sexuality. My 2017 book, Language in Immigrant America, is an interdisciplinary examination of language as a site for the contestation of  “immigrant” and “American” identities, and argues that these two categories have always been overlapping, conflicting, fluid, and mutually constitutive, as well as formed in the context of multilingualism. My current book project focuses on narratives of migration and belonging among former fellow refugees, and on narratives and discourse on social media. I am particularly interested in how migrant identities are formed and enacted through discourse and linguistic practices, such as code-switching and translanguaging. Simultaneously, I have been researching anti-LGBTQ+ discourses and far-right nationalism with a focus on Poland. This work is based on critical analyses of Polish far-right media, political, and ultraconservative Catholic discourses since 2019, and unmasks how queerphobia is mobilized to support multiple far-right agendas including extreme nationalism and conspiracy theories around COVID-19 denial.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	English Department, Durham, NC 27708
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://www.duke.edu/web/linguistics/index.html/~dmb50

Teaching (Spring 2026):

• LINGUIST 202.01, LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD Synopsis

  FFSC 2237, MW 01:25 PM-02:40 PM

  (also cross-listed as CULANTH 202.01, ICS 210.01, RUSSIAN 362.01)

• ENGLISH 356S.01, LANGUAGE, GENDER, SEXUALITY Synopsis

  Allen 318, MW 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as CULANTH 353S.01, GSF 351S.01, LINGUIST 395S.01)

Office Hours:

Education:

Ph.D.	Harvard University	2007
M.A.	Harvard University	1999
BA	Harvard University	1996

Specialties:

Linguistics

Keywords:

discourse analysis, narrative • Discourse Analysis, Narrative • Identity • linguistic analysis (linguistics) • Linguistic Analysis (linguistics) • mandarin dialects • Mandarin Dialects • Multilingualism • sociolinguistics • Sociolinguistics • united states--emigration and immigration--history • United States--emigration and Immigration--history

Curriculum Vitae

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Baran, D, The Discursive Construction of “Truth” in the Email Newsletter of an Anti-Genderist Polish NGO, Journal of Right-Wing Studies, vol. 2 no. 2 (January, 2025), California Digital Library (CDL) [doi]  [abs]
2. Baran, D, “Crown Jesus, Not the Virus”, in COVID Semiotics (September, 2024), pp. 41-61, Routledge [doi]
3. Tebaldi, C; Baran, D, Of tradwives and TradCaths: The anti-genderism register in global nationalist movements, Gender and Language, vol. 17 no. 1 (January, 2023), pp. 1-13 [doi]  [abs]
4. N/A, Anti-genderism in Global Nationalist Movements, edited by Tebaldi, C; Baran, D, Gender and Language no. Special issue (2023), Equinox Publishing
5. Baran, D, Defending Christianity from the “rainbow plague”: Historicized narratives of nationhood in rightwing antigenderist discourses in Poland, Gender and Language, vol. 17 no. 1 (2023), Equinox Publishing