Keisha Wiel

Keisha Wiel

Keisha Wiel

Position: Graduate Student Representative (2019-2022)

Keisha Wiel is a PhD candidate in the anthropology department at Temple University with a concentration in linguistic anthropology. Her dissertation research examines language socialization, multilingualism, linguistic rights, and education in a postcolonial state. Her research is a continuation of her thesis research from her Master’s that she received from the University of Central Florida. She also received a B.A. in anthropology from the University of North Florida where she began her research interests in creole languages in education. Her research interests primarily focus on the socialization of language ideas in education and how those ideas are formed through ideologies relating linguistic rights and choice. Specifically, her
dissertation research is based on how children are socialized into ideas about Papiamento/u and Dutch in secondary education in Aruba and Curaçao. She also observes how those ideas are debated and contested on Facebook through conversations about language policies in education. Through this, she will examine how notions of identity are informed by these ideologies about language on the islands. Wiel has also served as the Vice President of the Anthropology Graduate Student Association at Temple and has been an active member of CSA since she first presented in Curaçao in 2011.