Oliver Whitmore is a Dissertation Fellow in the Program of Romance Languages & Literatures with a Designated Emphasis in Indigenous Language Revitalization. His research primarily focuses on the use of minority languages in online contexts and language contact, but he also maintains interests in disability studies and institutions of cultural stewardship, such as museums and libraries.
His dissertation, “The Internet Dialectology of Occitan: Mapping Heritage Place on Digital Space”, examines how speakers of Occitan, a minority language of Southern France, are using internet websites to thrive in online spaces. Through the analysis of website content and language forms, the project shows how different subcultures of Occitan can each preserve their individual distinctness while promoting cultural diversity.
His research has been featured in numerous press interviews, such as with the San Francisco Chronicle, on French Radio, and in local Occitan news. For a complete list, see his CV below. He currently serves as the Linguistics Bibliographer for the Occitan Studies journal Tenso
Interested in doing research in the humanities as an undergrad? Please contact Whitmore.1@berkeley.edu for more information.
Interested in learning more about contemporary Occitan? Please send an email to Whitmore.1@berkeley.edu to learn more about the Occitan Studies Working Group. The annual lecture series is available here.
Recent Courses Taught
French/Spanish/Italian C26: Introduction to Romance Languages and Linguistics
French 35: Phonology & the Soundscapes of French
French 35: Pronunciation, Placemaking, and Dialectology.
French R1B: Wine in France: A Taste of Cultural History
Beginner & Intermediate French Language
Linguistics R1B: Language Endangerment in the department of Linguistics
Educational History
PhD Candidate, Romance Languages & Literatures with a Designated Emphasis in Indigenous Language Revitalization, Expected Completion 2026.
M.A. French (Linguistics), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2018.
B.A. with Honors Research Distinction, Romance Studies & Linguistics, The Ohio State University, 2016.
Selected Publications
Whitmore, O. (2023). But I don't speak Breton ...? Teaching Regional & Minority Languages & Cultures of France. French Studies Bulletinhttps://doi.org/10.1093/frebul/ktad018
Whitmore, O. (2024). Review of Studies in Italian as a Heritage Language (ed. Francisco Bryan Romano), De Gruyter Mouton. 324 pp. https://linguistlist.org/issues/35.1316/
language ecology
dialectology & geolinguistics
language on the internet
language heritage
language revitalization
morphophonology
minority languages and cultures of France, especially Occitan
"France" throughout time
library & museum studies
cultural history of wine
