Jeremy Rud

A white bald man in his early thirties, smiling softly and wearing a blue shirt.

PhD Candidate

he/him/his

I'm a PhD candidate in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California Davis (UCD). I'm also a Fellow of the University of California Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation and the University of California Humanities Research Institute, as well as a graduate student affiliate of the UCD Global Migration Center. 

My research broadly focuses on language in the asylum process and addresses issues of credibility and listening at intersections of public policy, narrative performance, and speech perception. For my dissertation project I am conducting ethnographic fieldwork with migrants and their advocates in Northern California to investigate how various individuals hear asylum seekers and their stories in certain ways that ultimately shape the outcome of their asylum applications. By examining discourse in these high-stakes contexts, I use my work to show how minute facets of linguistic interaction affect the actualization of migrants’ human rights as they seek asylum in the United States.

Education and Degree(s)
  • MA in Linguistics, University of Colorado Boulder (2016)
  • BA in Spanish and Global Studies, South Dakota State University (2014)
Honors and Awards
  • (These are the honors, awards, and grants I've received while at UCD. You can read descriptions of these honors and others on my CV.)
  • Linguistic Society of America (LSA) 2024 Elizabeth Dayton Award
  • University of California Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation (UCIGCC) Dissertation Fellowship, 2023-24
  • University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) Grant, “Work & Refuge: The Future of Graduate Student Professionalization, 2023-24”
  • UC Davis Global Migration Center/Gifford Center for Population Studies Graduate Student Workshop on International Migration Discussant 2023
  • American Association for Applied Linguistics “The Op-Ed Project” Scholarship 2023
  • UC Davis Graduate Students Association Spring Travel Award 2023
  • UC Davis Graduate Studies Travel Award 2022
  • UC Davis Department of Linguistics Steven Lapointe Award 2021
  • Comité International Permanent des Linguistes/Permanent International Committee of Linguists Spring 2021 Student Travel Grant
  • UC Davis Global Migration Center/Gifford Center for Population Studies Graduate Student Workshop on International Migration Award 2021
  • American Association for Applied Linguistics 2021 Graduate Student Award
  • UC Davis Provost’s Fellowship in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences 2019-2020
Courses
  • (These are the courses I've taught at UCD, as an Associate Instructor (AI, or Instructor of Record) and Teaching Assistant (TA). My teaching experience at other universities is listed on my CV.)
  • LIN 165 – Introduction to Applied Linguistics (TA, Winter 2022; TA, Spring 2023)
  • LIN 163 – Language, Gender, and Society (TA, Winter 2024)
  • LIN 121 – Morphology (TA, Fall 2020)
  • LIN/CMN 005 – Global English and Communication (TA, Spring 2021; AI, Winter 2023)
  • LIN 003 – Language and the Body (TA, Fall 2021; TA, Fall 2022; TA, Fall 2023)
  • LIN 001 – Introduction to Linguistics (TA, Winter 2021; TA, Summer 2022)
Research Interests & Expertise
  • Sociocultural linguistics, linguistic anthropology, migration and asylum, narrative, critical discourse analysis, interactional linguistics, ethnography, expertise, Spanish
Publications
  • Refereed journal articles:
  • Rud, J. A. (2018). After asylum: Hermeneutic composability in former refugee narratives. Narrative Inquiry, 28(1), 30-55. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.17059.rud

  • Working papers:
  • Rud, J. A. (in preparation). How should an asylum seeker sound? Listening, listenership, and credibility.
  • Rud, J. A. (in preparation). Can AI determine credible fear through sentiment analysis? A caution against the state's use of text analytics in asylum adjudications.
  • Rud, J. A. (in preparation, contracted). Language and Law. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Oxford University Press.
  • Rud, J. A. (in preparation, contracted). Academic professionalization as refuge and refusal: Lessons from grad school and migrant mutual aid work. Foundry. University of California Humanities Research Institute.

  • Chapters in edited volumes:
  • Rud, J. A., & Ramanathan, V. (forthcoming). Language Integration Policies for Immigrants and Refugees. In B. Spolsky & F. Hult (Eds.), The Handbook of Educational Linguistics. (2nd ed., pp. - ). Blackwell.
  • Holland, C. L., Bayley, R., Méndez Kline, T., & Rud, J.A. (in press). Variation in heritage learners’ written Spanish: Subject personal pronouns and discourse connectedness. In R. Orozco, R. Mendes, & M. Hoffman (Eds.), Cross-linguistic trends in language variation and change. (pp. - ). John Benjamins.

  • Book reviews:
  • Rud, J. A. (2024). Kanaaneh, Rhoda. 2023. The Right Kind of Suffering: Gender, Sexuality, and Arab Asylum Seekers in America. Anthropological Notebooks. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11108834
  • Rud, J. A. (2024). Marsilli-Vargas, Xochitl. 2022. Genres of Listening: An Ethnography of Psychoanalysis in Buenos Aires. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 34(1), 150-152. https://doi.org/10.1111/jola.12419
  • Rud, J. A. (2023). Cushing, Ian. 2022. Standards, Stigma, Surveillance: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and England’s Schools. Language Policy, 22, 375–377. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-023-09664-5

  • Blog posts, interviews, op-eds, and profiles:
  • Rud, J. A. (2023, June). Asylum Text Analytics as an algorithmic silver bullet: The impossible quest for automated fraud detection. Talking Politics. Chicago, IL. https://talkingpoliticsonline.blogspot.com/2023/06/asylum-text-analytic…
  • Rud, J. A. (2023, January). Lindsey Clouse on her book, Stigmatized on Screen. CaMP Anthropology Blog. Bloomington, IN. https://campanthropology.org/2023/01/02/lindsey-clouse-on-her-book-stig…
  • Rud, J. A. (2022, January). Our Afghan neighbors urgently need our help. Davis Vanguard. Davis, CA. https://www.davisvanguard.org/2022/01/guest-commentary-our-afghan-neigh…
  • Rud, J. A. (2021, June). Narrating your research: The keys to a successful conference abstract. American Association for Applied Linguistics Graduate Student Council Blog. https://www.aaal-gsc.org/post/narrating-your-research-the-keys-to-a-suc…
  • Rud, J. A. (2020, January). Reviving lost tribal languages. Adapted from “With the help of linguist Lynnika Butler, the Wiyot tribe revives their language from archived materials.” Native Sun News Today. Rapid City, SD. https://www.nativesunnews.today/articles/reviving-lost-tribal-languages/
Membership and Service
  • American Anthropological Society (2019 – present)
  • Society for Linguistic Anthropology (2019 – present)
  • American Association for Applied Linguistics (2020 – present)
  • Linguistic Society of America (2020 – present)
  • UC Davis Global Migration Center, Graduate Student Affiliate (2021 – present)
  • Intercambio Spanish Instructor, Davis, CA (Fall 2019 – present)
Documents