Lal Zimman

Lal Zimman: 100 word bio [last updated Dec. 21, 2021]

Lal Zimman (he/him or they/them) is Associate Professor of Linguistics at UC Santa Barbara. His sociocultural linguistic research on the relationship between language, identity, embodiment, and power in transgender communities uses an array of qualitative and quantitative methods. Zimman’s publications address topics such as trans people’s linguistic agency, the construction of “biological sex,” trans-inclusive language activism, trans identity narratives, and the ways trans voices unsettle assumptions about gender, sexuality, and the voice. Zimman’s current work focuses on singular they, real-time change in trans identity terminology online, trans students’ experiences with language, and the race-gender nexus in media portrayals of drag.