Vijay Ramjattan
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vijayramjattan.bsky.social
Vijay Ramjattan
@vijayramjattan.bsky.social
520 followers 400 following 230 posts
Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream @ OISE, University of Toronto / Mainly examining the intersections of language, race, and work within the context of education / he, him

https://www.vijay-ramjattan.com/
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vijayramjattan.bsky.social
Vijay Ramjattan @vijayramjattan.bsky.social · Jul 22
Check out my latest article, which explores how vocal accent, a seemingly auditory construct, reinforces the problematic idea that race is simply something we see.

It is open access, so there is no excuse not to read it:

doi.org/10.1111/ijal...
This is a screenshot of the title and abstract for the article, which can be read by clicking on the link of the post.
vijayramjattan.bsky.social
Experiencing racism does not make you immune from perpetuating racism.

Similarly, experiencing accentism does not make you immune from projecting ideas of "good" and "bad" accents.
November 12, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Reposted by Vijay Ramjattan
lauraskh.bsky.social
Proud and happy to finally see this chapter come out, and part of such a great collection.

Thanks again to the editors, Jane Setter @sdovchin.bsky.social @vijayramjattan.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/edited-volum...
Incredible Language and Refugee Legal Processes: Challenging Asylum Credibility Assessments
AbstractFor asylum seekers in the Global North, gaining long-term protection is dependent on successfully passing through a rigorous assessment process. Su
academic.oup.com
October 26, 2025 at 8:57 AM
vijayramjattan.bsky.social
Fighting against accentism requires moving away from statements like "Everyone has an accent" to declarations such as "Not all accents are created equal."
October 5, 2025 at 3:02 PM
vijayramjattan.bsky.social
I have my copies of The Oxford Handbook of Language and Prejudice!

I would like to thank @janesetter.bsky.social and @sdovchin.bsky.social as well as our contributors for rearticulating the relationship between language and prejudice.

Ask your library to order a copy:

shorturl.at/q87Bz
This is a photo showing a copy of the handbook standing on top of two others laid horizontally.
September 23, 2025 at 2:26 PM
vijayramjattan.bsky.social
From a white supremacist perspective:

Being professional = quietly accepting racism at work
Being unprofessional = calling out this racism
September 21, 2025 at 3:10 PM
vijayramjattan.bsky.social
I will be giving a hybrid talk at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Linguistics Department about my recent book, Workable Accents.

What does academic labour sound like?

Using the case of international teaching assistants, my talk attempts to answer this question!
Department of Linguistics presents as part of the Tuesday Seminar series Dr. Vijay Ramjattan Assistant Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto Sounding Out Academic Labour: The Case of International Teaching Assistants Tuesday, September 16, 2025 @ 12:00 pm Moore Hall 155A and Zoom For more info Visit ling.hawaii.edu or call (808) 956-8602 Zoom Meeting ID: 987 9443 6025 Password: Tuesday
September 10, 2025 at 3:18 PM
vijayramjattan.bsky.social
Pronunciation is not a technical action.

Pronunciation is a political act.
September 3, 2025 at 7:17 PM
vijayramjattan.bsky.social
"Native" and "nonnative English speaker" are products of racism, colonialism, and nationalism.

They are not objective linguistic descriptors.
August 31, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Vijay Ramjattan
khawlabadwan.bsky.social
Do you work in #education? This post is for you. It centres #Gaza at the heart of everything we do and say in education.

Living with Wounds in Education

www.repair-ed.uk/reparative-p...

Read it. Share it. Act on it

#GazaMatters
Reparative Praxis with Gaza
This guest post by Dr. Khawla Badwan asks: What does it mean to repair with Gaza?
www.repair-ed.uk
August 28, 2025 at 12:30 PM
vijayramjattan.bsky.social
You do not assess the pedagogical competence of an immigrant teacher through their accent.

You assess the pedagogical competence of an immigrant teacher through their actual pedagogy.
August 27, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Vijay Ramjattan
pipagaopoetry.bsky.social
disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2025/08/24/i...

Check out my interview with Moaz Mansour of Gaza Online on the Disability Visibility Project blog! @sfdirewolf.bsky.social @thellpsx.bsky.social
Interview with Moaz Mansour of Gaza Online
DIY meets Infrastructure: A conversation with Moaz Mansour of Gaza Online Jane Shi   On June 12th, 2025, Israel cut off the main fiber route in Gaza, destroying basic Internet infrastructure a…
disabilityvisibilityproject.com
August 25, 2025 at 7:07 PM
vijayramjattan.bsky.social
I finally have physical copies of my book!

If you are interested in how accent acts as a type of work in higher education, then you should read Workable Accents.

30% off if you buy from Bloomsbury:

www.bloomsbury.com/ca/workable-...

@bloomsburyacad.bsky.social / @bloomsburyling.bsky.social
This is a photo of one copy of my book on top of three other copies, with their spines facing toward the camera. The top book shows the cover of the book. Title: Workable Accents: How International Teaching Assistants Vocally Fashion and Contest Academic Labor Author: Vijay A. Ramjattan Cover Art: multi-patterned speech bubble with 4 arms of varying skin tones reaching toward it
August 21, 2025 at 10:18 PM
vijayramjattan.bsky.social
You should not have to standardize your speech in order to be heard.
August 21, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Vijay Ramjattan
blacklikewho.bsky.social
Open Access for this new exited collection Beyond Sanctuary. Please read and circulate.

nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
Beyond Sanctuary: The Humanism of a World in Motion
The contributors to Beyond Sanctuary examine how the liberal democracies of the West recognize and include racial others through technologies of state powe
nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
August 20, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Reposted by Vijay Ramjattan
nkalamb.bsky.social
Please contribute to help Hammam's family. They are in absolutely desperate circumstances. Anything helps.
August 20, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Vijay Ramjattan
nkalamb.bsky.social
“Given the ongoing genocide in Gaza…we call on Sport Canada and Tennis Canada to forbid Canadian athletes to compete against Israeli athletes at the Davis Cup and all other international events.”

- 413 🇨🇦 academics, athletes + sports journalists, inc 3 former UN special rapporteurs + an Olympic 🥈ist
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (FREDERICTON, August 18th, 2025) A group of 413 Canadian and Canadian-based scholars, athletes, sports journalists, and sports officials have signed a public letter calling on Tennis Canada to cancel the Davis Cup tournament with Israel this September in Halifax. Signatories include three United Nations Special Rapporteurs, four-time Olympian distance runner Mohammed Ahmed, two members of the Palestinian women’s soccer team who compete for York University, a former Canadian Olympic beach volleyball coach, sports journalists Shireen Ahmed and Ian Kennedy, public intellectuals and activists Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis and some of Canada’s most distinguished and internationally-recognized scholars. The letter is signed by prominent individuals from 46 different academic institutions in Canada, as well as by Canadians at prominent global institutions. One hundred and six of the signatories are based in Atlantic Canada, where the event is slated to occur. The call to cancel the Davis Cup event comes amidst rising condemnation of Israeli conduct in Gaza and the West Bank, which leading legal scholars, activists and human rights groups have described as a genocide. Given the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the letter says that allowing the competition to go ahead is “unconscionable” and calls on the Canadian government to prevent Canadian athletes from competing against Israeli athletes in all international sporting competitions. Despite Tennis Canada’s claims that the event isn’t political and is just about playing tennis, the letter states in part that Canada should follow the lead of other nations who “refuse to legitimize Israel’s crimes” by withdrawing from international sporting competition. “This includes Jordanian tennis player Abdellah Shelbayh, who recently withdrew from a tennis competition in Greece after being slated to play an Israeli athlete,” the letter says. The letter points to the use of sporting sanctions in South Africa as a meaningful …
August 18, 2025 at 2:09 PM
vijayramjattan.bsky.social
Once again, language teaching is inherently political because languages are political inventions in the first place.
August 17, 2025 at 7:24 PM
vijayramjattan.bsky.social
White supremacy is the problem, not those who point out this fact.
August 17, 2025 at 3:29 PM
vijayramjattan.bsky.social
It takes a certain kind of ignorance and arrogance to believe that if marginalized people change the way they sound, they will automatically get people to listen to them in a more ethical manner.
August 10, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Vijay Ramjattan
endofsportpod.bsky.social
Ep. 163: Gaza and Global Sport

We return from our too-long hiatus to discuss athletic boycott in the context of genocide with former Ireland basketball captain Rebecca O'Keeffe, as well as our views on some of the atrocities over the last seven months.

open.spotify.com/episode/3Odh...
Irish national basketball team before a match versus Israel
August 7, 2025 at 11:04 AM
vijayramjattan.bsky.social
"Professionalism" is typically used to police marginalized workers, not uplift them.
August 6, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Vijay Ramjattan
jaetakeuchi.bsky.social
Just asked my library to purchase this book! You should do the same! #appliedlinguistics #accent
vijayramjattan.bsky.social Vijay Ramjattan @vijayramjattan.bsky.social · Jul 10
My book is now officially available to order!

Workable Accents critically explores how international teaching assistants in Canadian universities vocally fashion and contest various aspects of their academic labour.

Please ask your university or local library to order a copy:

shorturl.at/MfGLQ
This is a screenshot of the front cover of the book. The top half contains the title, "Workable Accents: How International Teaching Assistants Vocally Fashion and Contest Academic Labor," and my full name, Vijay A. Ramjattan. The bottom half contains a multi-coloured speech bubble with multiracial hands reaching out to it from four corners.
August 2, 2025 at 4:31 PM
vijayramjattan.bsky.social
Thanks very much for Prof. David Gramling for writing an insightful blurb for my book!

Just another reminder that Workable Accents is available to order (sadly, there is a delay with print copies, but e-copies are readily available):

shorturl.at/MfGLQ
With this book, Ramjattan establishes himself as the leading thinker on accentism in educational linguistics and beyond. Not only does this book bring together utterly pressing matters of political economy, higher education, racialization, and labour consciousness, it provides strategies for casting off oppressive models around what makes a good teacher. By listening closely to teachers of various multilingual competencies, Ramjattan undoes allegedly common-sense notions around how and when accent is assessed and assessible, identifies precisely how it is used as a supremacist wedge to keep people down and out of power, and discerns what schools and universities need to do to provide a truly just workplace for all. In a moment inclined toward cynical impulses and reactionary dread, this is instead a book driven by justice, commitment, attentiveness, respect for people, and clarity of educational purpose. - David Gramling, University of British Columbia
August 2, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Reposted by Vijay Ramjattan
berghahnbooks.bsky.social
LANGUAGE & POLITICAL SUBJECTIVITY: Stancemaking, Power and Politics in Chile and Venezuela by Miki Makihara and Juan Luis Rodríguez ( @jlrodriguez10.bsky.social) has now been published!

Find out more here: bit.ly/4jTo9UQ

#PoliticalAnthropology #Anthropology #EconomicAnthropology
July 31, 2025 at 2:05 PM