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John McWhorter
John Hamilton McWhorter V (/məkˈhwɔːrtər/; born October 6, 1965) is an American linguist. He is an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, where he also teaches American studies and music history. He has authored a number of books on race relations and African-American culture, and is a political commentator especially in his New York Times newsletter.
McWhorter was born in Philadelphia, and raised in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia and in Lawnside, New Jersey. His father, John Hamilton McWhorter IV (1927–1996), was a college administrator, and his mother, Schelysture Gordon McWhorter (1937–2011), taught social work at Temple University. McWhorter attended Friends Select School in Philadelphia, and after tenth grade he was accepted to Simon's Rock College, where he earned an AA degree. McWhorter has described his upbringing as part of the Black middle class. He has also attributed some of his views to the Quaker school he attended as a child.
McWhorter later attended Rutgers University and received a B.A. degree in French in 1985. He obtained an M.A. degree in American Studies from New York University. In 1993, he earned his Ph.D. degree in linguistics from Stanford University. His dissertation focused on Saramaccan, a creole language spoken by approximately 58,000 people of West African descent in Suriname.
McWhorter taught linguistics at Cornell University from 1993 to 1995. He then became an associate professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked from 1995 until 2003. He left that position to become a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.
Since 2008, McWhorter has taught linguistics, American studies, and classes in the core curriculum program at Columbia University. As Columbia's Department of Linguistics had been dissolved in 1989, he was initially assigned to the Department of English and Comparative Literature. The Program of Linguistics (including a revived undergraduate major as of 2021) is housed in the Department of Slavic Languages.
McWhorter is the instructor of the courses "The Story of Human Language"; "Understanding Linguistics: The Science of Language"; "Myths, Lies and Half-Truths About English Usage"; "Language Families of the World"; "Ancient Writing and the History of the Alphabet"; and "Language From A to Z", as part of The Great Courses, a series produced by The Teaching Company.
McWhorter has written for Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Politico, Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Daily News, City Journal, The New York Sun, The New Yorker, The Root, The Daily Beast, Books & Culture, and CNN.
McWhorter was contributing editor at The New Republic from 2001 to 2014. He is a contributing editor at The Atlantic. After writing op-eds for The New York Times for several years, he became an Opinion columnist there in 2021. He hosts the Lexicon Valley podcast, previously for Slate from 2016 to 2021 and since then for Booksmart Studios.
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John McWhorter
John Hamilton McWhorter V (/məkˈhwɔːrtər/; born October 6, 1965) is an American linguist. He is an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, where he also teaches American studies and music history. He has authored a number of books on race relations and African-American culture, and is a political commentator especially in his New York Times newsletter.
McWhorter was born in Philadelphia, and raised in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia and in Lawnside, New Jersey. His father, John Hamilton McWhorter IV (1927–1996), was a college administrator, and his mother, Schelysture Gordon McWhorter (1937–2011), taught social work at Temple University. McWhorter attended Friends Select School in Philadelphia, and after tenth grade he was accepted to Simon's Rock College, where he earned an AA degree. McWhorter has described his upbringing as part of the Black middle class. He has also attributed some of his views to the Quaker school he attended as a child.
McWhorter later attended Rutgers University and received a B.A. degree in French in 1985. He obtained an M.A. degree in American Studies from New York University. In 1993, he earned his Ph.D. degree in linguistics from Stanford University. His dissertation focused on Saramaccan, a creole language spoken by approximately 58,000 people of West African descent in Suriname.
McWhorter taught linguistics at Cornell University from 1993 to 1995. He then became an associate professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked from 1995 until 2003. He left that position to become a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.
Since 2008, McWhorter has taught linguistics, American studies, and classes in the core curriculum program at Columbia University. As Columbia's Department of Linguistics had been dissolved in 1989, he was initially assigned to the Department of English and Comparative Literature. The Program of Linguistics (including a revived undergraduate major as of 2021) is housed in the Department of Slavic Languages.
McWhorter is the instructor of the courses "The Story of Human Language"; "Understanding Linguistics: The Science of Language"; "Myths, Lies and Half-Truths About English Usage"; "Language Families of the World"; "Ancient Writing and the History of the Alphabet"; and "Language From A to Z", as part of The Great Courses, a series produced by The Teaching Company.
McWhorter has written for Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Politico, Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Daily News, City Journal, The New York Sun, The New Yorker, The Root, The Daily Beast, Books & Culture, and CNN.
McWhorter was contributing editor at The New Republic from 2001 to 2014. He is a contributing editor at The Atlantic. After writing op-eds for The New York Times for several years, he became an Opinion columnist there in 2021. He hosts the Lexicon Valley podcast, previously for Slate from 2016 to 2021 and since then for Booksmart Studios.
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