Teaching "Language and Home"

Main Article Content

Patrick Lee Lucas
Allison Burkette
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0262-5445

Abstract

In Spring 2024, we led a seminar entitled “Language and Home” for 18 undergraduate and graduate students from design and linguistics at a large public R1 university located at the geographical and cultural crossroads that is Kentucky. As a space historically where many cultural paths crossed, the Commonwealth provides an excellent place for the study of domestic styles and linguistic varieties.


As faculty housed in two different colleges within the university (School of Interiors, College of Design and Department of Linguistics, College of Arts & Sciences), we conceptualized and carried out the course working together across disciplines to deliver a blended teaching approach that emphasized conceptual frames for language and design studies, visual and textual analysis, field work, conversation, the development of creative student work products, and reflection at several moments during the term. Purposefully working with a transdisciplinary mindset, we experimented with pedagogical tactics to bring together the diverse student group to examine the home as the most fundamental set of spaces where human life unfolds. We plan a book, Language and Home, to examine the places where we dwell and the words we use in those spaces to shape identity and layer them with meaning.

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Article Details

How to Cite
Lucas, P. L., & Burkette, A. (2025). Teaching "Language and Home". International Journal of Designs for Learning, 16(2), 50–58. https://doi.org/10.14434/ijdl.v16i2.38623
Section
Design Cases
Author Biographies

Patrick Lee Lucas, University of Kentucky

Patrick Lee Lucas, Professor in the College of Design at the University of Kentucky, teaches history and studio courses. His scholarly practice centers on the dialogue where design and community meet.

Allison Burkette, University of Kentucky

Allison Burkette is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Kentucky. Her research interests include language variation and change and language and material culture.