Renee A. Blake - Biography

Biography

Renée A. Blake is a second generation Caribbean American by way of Trinidad and Venezuela. She is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Linguistics and Social & Cultural Analysis at New York University. She also serves as a Faculty Fellow in Residence at New York University. In addition, Blake was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan in the spring semester of 2004.

Her research examines language contact, race, ethnicity and class with a focus on African American English, Caribbean English Creoles and New York City English. She is the recipient of several grants including Fulbright, Rockefeller and National Science Foundation. In 2010, she was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Faculty Award at New York University. She has also served as a consultant to organizations including Disney and the Ford Foundation. She has two web-based linguistic sites: 'Word. The Online Journal on African American English' and ‘Voices of New York’.

Blake started and completed her tertiary level education at Stanford University. She received a B.Sc in Biology, an M.A. in Linguistics, and a Ph.D. in Linguistics. She has undertaken additional coursework at University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, and at Universita per Stranieri di Perugia, Italy.

She is the daughter of the film producer, Grace Blake and the sister of the actor Andre B. Blake.