Misty Crooks

Misty Crooks is a Ph.D. student in linguistic anthropology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She received a B.A. in anthropology from UNC Chapel Hill. Before beginning her studies at CUNY, she taught English as a Second Language and received an M.A. in Applied Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts Boston. This fostered her interest in the social life of language and discourses as well as issues of race and class. Her previous research analyzed cross-examinations of witnesses and focused on the reproduction of dominant ideologies in court trials. She is currently developing a project to explore the political battles around democratic process in North Carolina. She is interested in voter suppression and transgender bathroom laws. She will be conducting fieldwork and archival research this summer to investigate competing conceptualizations of democracy and the history of voting laws and redistricting.