Research Interests

Baron spent the 2007-2008 academic year gathering data on university student use of mobile phones in Sweden, the US, Italy, and Japan, and has just added a Korean corpus. She is now in the process of analyzing the data. Projected publications include guest-editing a themed journal section on mobile telephony in cross-cultural context and a book about cultural influences on use of information and communication technologies.

Honors, Awards, and Fellowships

• English-Speaking Union’s Duke of Edinburgh English Language Book Award winner (2008) for Always On
• Fulbright Fellow, Sweden (Fall 2007)
• American University Presidential Research Fellow (AY 2007-2008)
• “Professor of the Year”, AU University Honors Program
• English-Speaking Union’s Duke of Edinburgh English Language Book Award competition (2000), Alphabet to Email “Highly Commended”
• President, Zeta of Washington Chapter (American University), Phi Beta Kappa (1998-2000)
• President, Semiotic Society of America (1987)
• Guggenheim Fellow (1984-1985)

Media Appearances

• “Diane Rehm Show”, WAMU, on Always On (July 2008)
• CBC Radio (“Definitely Not the Opera”), on use of code words and shorthand in language (February 2007)
• Fox 5, on effect of instant messaging and text messaging on school writing (March 2007)
• CBC Radio One (“The Current”), on the 25^th anniversary of emoticons (September 2007)
• BBC World Service News Hour, on mobile phone etiquette (October 2007)
• ABC News 20/20, on instant messaging use by teenagers and young adults (November 2004)
• “Kojo Nnamdi Show”, WAMU, on the future of English as a world language (July 2003)
• “Voice of America”, on language and the internet (March 2002)
• “Good Morning America”, ABC, on Growing Up with Language (July 1992)

Work In Progress

• Guest editing themed section of journal on mobile phones in cross-cultural context
• Book on impact of culture on use of information and communication technologies

Selected Publications

• Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
• Alphabet to Email: How Written Language Evolved and Where It’s Heading.London: Routledge, 2000.
• Growing Up with Language: How Children Learn to Talk. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1992.
• Pigeon-Birds and Rhyming Words: The Role of Parents in Language Learning. Center for Applied Linguistics/Prentice Hall Regents, 1990.
• Computer Languages: A Guide for the Perplexed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1986.
• Speech, Writing, and Sign. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1981.
• Theory and Methodology in Semiotics (editor, with Nikhil Bhattacharya), special issue of Semiotica 26 3/4, 1979.
• Language Acquisition and Historical Change. Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1977.

Professional Presentations

• Plenary Address, University of Washington, Language in the (New) Media Conference (September 2009)
• Invited Lecture, NASA (Greenbelt, MD), Goddard’s Exploring Leadership Colloquium Series (April 2009)
• Invited Lecture, Maryville University (Saint Louis, MO), Medart Lecture Series (April 2009)
• Plenary Address, Swiss Association of University Teachers of English, Biannual Conference, Zurich, Switzerland (May 2007)
• Keynote Address, College of Saint Rose (Albany, NY), President’s Day Opening Convocation (August 2007)
• Keynote Address, Loft Literary Center (Minneapolis, MN), Conference on “Reading and Writing the Future” (April 2007)
• Plenary Address, Universitat Jaume I (Castellon, Spain), First International Conference on Internet and Language (September 2003)

Films/Documentaries

• Children Learning Language: How Adults Can Help (with Louise Schrank), co-scripted and appeared in 24 minute video (The Learning Seed)
• Oral Traditions: The Printed Word and Democracy, scripted and appeared in 10 minute segment on the history of writing for one-hour documentary (Library of Congress Global Literacy Project)