Chantal Tetreault

(She/Her )

tetreau7@msu.edu
(517)355-0208
Baker 316

Associate Professor

Anthropology

Biography

I am a linguistic and cultural anthropologist. My research and teaching address how cultural processes of identity construction are achieved through everyday language use. The larger purpose of this work is to better understand cultural and linguistic change in the contexts of postcoloniality and globalization, including the process of charting new social identities as they emerge in innovative linguistic forms. A main focus of this intellectual project concerns discovering and describing the processes whereby the ideological underpinnings of social identities are constructed and taken apart in everyday interaction.

My current scholarship analyzes why and how reforms for Arabic heritage language education in French public schools have been repeatedly proposed and have repeatedly failed. I examine the ways that differently positioned individuals—politicians, educational administrators, scholars, teachers, parents, and students—interpret the value of Arabic relative to the evolving issues of culture, religion, politics, and education in France. The importance of these public conversations and proposed educational reforms moves beyond the scope of language instruction to encompass changing understandings of French identity in the context of immigration, globalization, and post-coloniality.

Works

Peer Reviewed Books

2015 Tetreault, Chantal. Transcultural Teens: Performing Youth Identities in French Cités. Wiley-Blackwell.

Recent Peer Reviewed (Refereed) Journal Articles and Chapters

Forthcoming: Delfino, J., C. Tetreault., & S. Das., Editors. Heritage Language, Racialization, and (Post)colonialism. Double Special Issue of Language, Culture, & Society.

2026. Tetreault, Chantal, Alexandrine Barontini and Kiana Sakimehr. “Contested Heritage Landscapes For Arabic Language Learning in a Postcolonial France.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology36(1): e70041. https://doi.org/10.1111/jola.70041.

2025 Silvina Bongiovanni, Betsy Sneller, & Chantal Tetreault. Chapter 8: Exploring Stylistic Repertoires across the Lifespan. In Connecting the Individual and the Community in Sociolinguistic Panel Research, edited by Isa Buchstaller and Karen V. Beaman, pp. 168-173. Routledge Press. DOI: 10.4324/9781003357438-10

2024 Inmaculada Garcia-Sanchez & Chantal Tetreault. Arabic and the Discursive Contours of Islamo-Linguistic-Phobia in Spain and France. In Language and Social Justice: A Global Perspective, edited by Kathleen Riley, Bernard C. Perley, and Inmaculada M. García-Sánchez, pp. 211-237. Bloomsbury Press.

2022 Delfino, J., M. Sharifi, & C. Tetreault, Associate Editors. Revisiting and Reimagining Heritage Language. Special Virtual Issue of Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. November 1. https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1111/(ISSN)1548-1395.revisiting-and-reimagining

2021 Tetreault, Chantal. What is Arabic Good For? Future Directions and Current Challenges of Arabic Language Educational Reform in France. Journal of Belonging, Identity, Language, and Diversity (J-BILD). Vol. 5(1), pp. 60-82. ISSN 2561-7982

2021 Tetreault, Chantal. Wrestling with Tradition: Reconstructing Jewish Community through Negotiating Shared Purpose. In Hillewaert, Sarah & Chantal Tetreault. Special Section: Reimagining Sharedness. Religion and Society: Advances in Research 12: pp. 178-190. doi:10.3167/arrs.2021.120110

2019 Tetreault, Chantal. Sherzer’s Discourse-Centered Approach Applied to Cultural Change Across Generations of Speakers. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Vol. 29, Issue 2, pp. 149–154. DOI: 10.1111/jola.12207.

2019 Tetreault, Chantal, Sara Tahir, Amara E. Ezeamama, & Farha Abbasi. Muslim Women’s Ethical Engagement and Emotional Coping in Post-Election United States. Journal of Muslim Mental Health. Vol. 13, Issue 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/jmmh.10381607.0013.103