Perry Balmat
Perry Balmat
Dr. M Peregrine Balmat* (he/him), Professor of Academic Literacy and Linguistics at BMCC, CUNY, specializes in the analysis of institutional interaction of street-level workers, particularly teachers, social workers, and law enforcement. His forthcoming book The Subtlety of the Street and his conference keynote at the Street-Level Bureaucracy conference in Copenhagen brings linguistic and discourse analytic rigor to the analysis of the social construction of discretion in everyday, institutional, street-level practice. Therein, he examines how bureaucratic, neoliberal policies surface in and shape face-to-face, street-level organizational communication.
He is a co-editor of and co-contributor to the widely cited book: Analysing Social Work Communication: Discourse in Practice, and he has published in Text & Talk, Discourse Processes, the Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, British Journal of Social Work, Journal of Child and Family Social Work, and Discourse Studies. His newest research returns to his sociolinguistic and linguistic anthropological roots with the North Carolina Language and Life Project, as he investigates a dying language variety among circus, carnival, and sideshow people in the United States and the sociocultural and economic shifts that contribute to its loss. He teaches Forensic Linguistics, Language in the Helping Professions, Language & Power, Language & Culture, Language, Race, & Ethnicity, Gender & Women’s Studies, and other related courses.
*M Peregrine Balmat has also published under his previous name Maureen T. Matarese and Mo Matarese
Education:
Teachers College, Columbia University, Ed.D., 2008; Language, Literacy & Technology: International Educational Development
Teachers College, Columbia University, M.A., 2004; Applied Linguistics
North Carolina State University, M.A., 2002; English
Virginia Tech, B.A., 2000; Majors: English and Music.
Professor of Academic Literacy & Linguistics
Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, Department of Academic Literacy and Linguistics. Assistant Professor: 2008-2014;
Associate Professor (with tenure): September 1, 2015-2020);
Full Professor (August, 26, 2020-present)
What I Teach:
Language & Culture (Sociolinguistics/Linguistic Anthropology),
Forensic Linguistics,
Language & Power,
Language in the Helping Professions,
Language, Race, & Ethnicity
Gender & Women’s Studies
BOOKS
Balmat, M Peregrine. (in print) The Subtlety of the Street: The Discourse of Responsibility. Michigan University Press.
Hall, C., Juhila, K., Matarese, M., van Nijnatten, C. (eds). (2014) Social work communication: Discourse in practice. Routledge.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Jacknick, C. & Balmat, P. (neé Matarese, M.) (forthcoming). Title Forthcoming. Routledge Handbook on Forensic Linguistics and Ethics. Routledge.
Balmat, P. (neé Matarese, M.) & Lance, K. E. (forthcoming). Health Communication in the NYC Linguistic Landscape: Balancing COVID Safety with Corporate Advertising. In Routledge Handbook of Language & Health Communication. Routledge.
Lance, K., Matarese, M., Friedman, C., Diaz, C., & Coombs, B. (2023). Your health is in your hands. In Ädel, A. & J. Östman Risk Discourse and Responsibility, John Benjamins: 142-171.
Matarese, M. (2019). Discursive Mindfulness among Practitioners Analyzing Social Work Communication. In L. Grujicic-Alatriste (ed.) Discourse Research in the Real World: Challenges & Promises of Doing Knowledge Dissemination, Aiming for Praxis” Multilingual Matters.
Matarese, M. & van Nijnatten (2019). ‘Showing one’s card’: Facilitating and resisting disclosure in juvenile probation. Text and Talk
Matarese, M. & Caswell, D. (2017). Neoliberal talk: The routinized structures of document-focused social worker-client discourse. In S. Schram and M. Pavlovskaya. Rethinking neoliberalism: Resisting the disciplinary regime. Routledge.
Matarese, M. & Caswell, D. (2017b). “I’m gonna ask you about yourself, so I can put it on paper” Analysing Street-Level Bureaucracy through Form-Related Talk in Social Work. British Journal of Social Work 48(3): 714-733.
Van Nijnatten, C., Matarese, M., & Noordegraaf, M. (2017). "Accomplishing irony: socializing foster children into peer culture." Journal of Child and Family Social Work 22(4): 1497-1505.
Matarese, M. (2016). Time, place, and imagination: Responsibility talk in caseworker-client interaction. In J. Östman & A.M. Solin (eds) Discourse and Responsibility in Professional Settings. Equinox Publishing.
Matarese, M. & Nijnatten, C. (2015). Making a case for client insistence. Discourse Processes 52 (8): 670-688.
Matarese, M. & Jacknick, C. (2015). Using the discourse toolkit in your classroom. IDIOM, NYSTESOL.
Matarese, M. & Caswell, D. (2014). Responsibility. In Hall, C., Juhila, K., Matarese, M., van Nijnatten, C. (eds). (2014) Social work communication: Discourse in practice. Routledge.
Hall, C.J. & Matarese, M. (2014). Narrative. In Hall, C., Juhila, K., Matarese, M., van Nijnatten, C. (eds). (2014) Social work communication: Discourse in practice. Routledge.
Matarese, M. (2012). Getting Placed in Time: Responsibility Talk in Caseworker-Client Interaction. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice 9 (3): 341-359.
Matarese, M. (2011). Beyond Community: Networks of bilingual community support for languages other than English in New York City. In O. García, Z. Zakharia, & B. Otcu (eds) Bilingual Community Education and Multilingualism.
Matarese, M. and Anson, C. (2010). Teacher Response to AAE Features in the Writing of College Students: A Case Study in the Social Construction of Error. The Elephant in the Classroom: Race and Writing. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.