The School for Advanced Research’s American Identities mini-festival illuminates diverse human experiences in the U.S. through lectures, music performance, and film.

Ilan Stavans
At a time when ideological polarization is breaking apart the U.S., the English language is one of the few remaining threads that binds Americans to each other and to their past. Yet it is contested. What does our ever-changing language say about our national character? Cultural commentator Ilan Stavans, the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American, and Latino Culture at Amherst College, looks at our verbal history in search of answers.