Deborah Tannen - College of Arts & Sciences

Georgetown University Faculty in Research

Dr. Deborah Tannen has been a member of the linguistics department faculty at Georgetown since 1979. In addition to Dr. Tannen’s seventeen academic books and over one hundred scholarly articles, she has written eight books for general audiences. The best known of these is You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, which was on the New York Times best seller list for nearly four years, including eight months as No. 1, and has been translated into 31 languages. This is the book that brought gender differences in communication style to the forefront of public awareness. Deborah’s a frequent guest and contributor to many national television and radio programs. Table of Contents 0:00 - Intro 1:20 - How did you end up at Georgetown? 2:00 - How does sociolinguistics define itself in the larger context of linguistics? 3:45 - How do you describe your research to those outside of academia? 8:10 - Do you think people are conscious of their culturally-situated behaviors? 9:00 - What’s the germ of the passion that keeps you going? 12:50 - How do you choose the next topic? 15:10 - How do you blend your teaching and research? 16:25 - What is a common misperception you’ve found among young graduate students? 17:40 - What is the next research question you plan to address? Music Main Theme: “Corporate Technology” by Scott Holmes Background: “Ambient Vol. 1” (album) by Daniel Birch