Dr. Richard E. Morris
Professor
Global Expertise
Countries and/or Territories of Expertise
- Cuba
Languages Spoken
- French
- German
- Portuguese
- Spanish
Areas of Global Specialization
- Geopolitics of sugarcane in the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly in the Caribbean
Departments / Programs
Degree Information
- PHD, Ohio State University (1998)
- MA, Ohio State University (1992)
- BA, Cornell College (1990)
Areas of Expertise
- Spanish phonology, phonetics, morphology, dialectology, and history of the language
- 19th & 20th century Cuban history
- Education abroad
Publications
Books:
- 2023. Social Struggle and Civil Society in Nineteenth Century Cuba. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
- 2010. Pronunciación de la lengua espa&nt...
Books:
- 2023. Social Struggle and Civil Society in Nineteenth Century Cuba. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
- 2010. Pronunciación de la lengua española para anglohablantes. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.
Films:
- 2014. Medicine for Guatemala. [Not available to view]
- 2013. Milton Hershey’s Cuba. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QcrY0CwMu0
- 2013. Señor Hershey: Voices from a Cuban Sugar Town. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKq5EbzDyC0
- 2012. Cuba in the Raw: A Story of Sugar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4_lt2XoTtQ
Journal articles:
- 2018. ‘The Victorian ‘Change of Air’ as medical and social construction.’ Journal of Tourism History 10(1): 49-65.
- 2016. ‘Hosts and guests in early Cuba tourism.’ Journal of Tourism History 8(2): 167–183.
Book chapters:
- 2005. ‘Attraction to the unmarked in Old Spanish leveling.’ In Studies in Hispanic Linguistics: Papers from the 7th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.
- 2002 ‘Coda obstruents and local constraint conjunction in north–central Peninsular Spanish.’ In Current Issues in Romance Linguistics. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
- 2000 ‘Constraint interaction in Spanish /s/-aspiration: Three Peninsular varieties.’ In Hispanic Linguistics at the Turn of the Millennium: Selected Proceedings from the Third Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.
Conference papers:
- 2009. ‘Vowel syncope and (non)epenthesis in the Latin imparisyllabics.’ 39th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages. University of Arizona (Tucson). March 27, 2009.
- 2005. ‘The optimal leveling of Latin imparisyllabic nouns.’ 36th Meeting of the Northeastern Linguistic Society (NELS-36), University of Massachusetts (Amherst). October 28-30.
- 2004. ‘Honest compositions in a Babel Fish generation.’ Annual Conference of the Tennessee Foreign Language Teaching Association (Nashville), November 6.
- 2003. ‘Where the boys aren’t: Gender demographics in the foreign language classroom.’ Annual Conference of the Tennessee Foreign Language Teaching Association (Nashville), November 7.
- 2003. ‘Attraction to the unmarked in Old Spanish leveling.’ 7th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. University of New Mexico (Albuquerque), October.
- 2002. ‘The making of a noisy morpheme: Emergent categories and the Spanish suffix –ido.’ 66th Southeastern Conference on Linguistics (SECOL), University of Memphis, April 19.
- 2001. ‘Getting there is half the fun: How teachers and students can study and do research in Cuba legally.’ Annual Conference of the Tennessee Foreign Language Teaching Association (Nashville), November 2.
- 2001. ‘Sound as symbolic gesture: Spanish sonidos.’ 5th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, University of Illinois (Urbana–Champaign), October 12. [with Stuart E. Bernstein, MTSU Department of Psychology]
- 2001. ‘Measuring sound symbolism: The curious case of Spanish sonidos.’ 2nd Annual MTSU Faculty Research Symposium, April. [with Stuart E. Bernstein, MTSU Department of Psychology]
- 2000. ‘What’s in a sonido? An empirical study of sound symbolism in Spanish.’ Western Conference on Linguistics, California State University (Fresno), October. [with Stuart E. Bernstein, MTSU Department of Psychology]
- 1999. ‘Constraint interaction in Spanish /s/–aspiration: Three Peninsular varieties.’ 3rd Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Georgetown University (Washington, DC), October.
- 1999. ‘Coda obstruents and local constraint conjunction in north–central Peninsular Spanish.’ 29th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages. University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), March.
Presentations
See Publications
Research / Scholarly Activity
See Publications
Creative Activity
See Publications
In the Media
- 2022. 'How to say ‘Demonbreun’ and 4 other unusual Tennessee pronunciations,' WPLN (NPR), Nashville. June 13.
- 2022. ''What happened to the strong accents?' Taking a look at the fading Nashville dialect,' Newschan...
- 2022. 'How to say ‘Demonbreun’ and 4 other unusual Tennessee pronunciations,' WPLN (NPR), Nashville. June 13.
- 2022. ''What happened to the strong accents?' Taking a look at the fading Nashville dialect,' Newschannel5. May 31.
- 2019. 'Photography Speaks of Disappearing Languages,' Desert Leaf vol. 33, no. 8 (September), 30-35.
- 2018. 'Sweetness and Desire: A History of Sugar’, radio documentary episode titled ‘Sugar Wars’ on the role of sugar in geopolitical and economic conflict, with emphasis on Cuban affairs. BBC Radio 4 (Edinburgh, UK). January 25.
- 2017. 'A 93-Year-Old’s Nashville Accent Lives on, Even as Dialects Fade,' WPLN (NPR), Nashville. December 29.
- 2014. 'What was Alan Gross Doing in Cuba?' Factcheck.org. December 23.
- 2014. 'MTSU Professor: Cuba Action “Bold,”’ Murfreesboro Daily News Journal. December 14.
- 2013. 'Nashville Named as City with Charming Accent,' Nashville Newschannel5. March 11.
Courses
Courses created:
- Spanish Pronunciation & Phonetics (SPAN 3120)
- Spanish & Power (SPAN 3090)
- Topics in Foreign Language Linguistics (HUM 3000)
- Contemporary Cuba (SPAN 3015)
Courses developed:
- Topics in Spanish Linguistics (as SPAN 6000)
- The Legacy of Latin (as HUM 3000)
- From Esperanto to Dothraki: The Languages We Create (as HUM 3000)
- Spanish Conversation and Culture in Cuba (as SPA...
Courses created:
- Spanish Pronunciation & Phonetics (SPAN 3120)
- Spanish & Power (SPAN 3090)
- Topics in Foreign Language Linguistics (HUM 3000)
- Contemporary Cuba (SPAN 3015)
Courses developed:
- Topics in Spanish Linguistics (as SPAN 6000)
- The Legacy of Latin (as HUM 3000)
- From Esperanto to Dothraki: The Languages We Create (as HUM 3000)
- Spanish Conversation and Culture in Cuba (as SPAN 3990)
- Spanish Conversation and Culture in Costa Rica (as SPAN 3990)
- Latin American Culture (KIIS Costa Rica) Conversational Spanish (KIIS Costa Rica)
Courses taught:
- SPAN 1010, 1020, 2010, 2020, 3000, 3015, 3010, 3020, 3090, 3120, 3130, 3990, 5120, 5990, 6000
- FL 6700
- HUM 3000
- At Ohio State University (1990-98): French, Spanish
- At Columbus State University (1993): French
- At Capital University (1997): English as a Second Language