MICHEL DEGRAFF: So the course grew out of a need and a desire to make linguistics available to a broader range of students, and within which we could connect languages to larger issues of culture and identity. And as I'm from Haiti, and as my research is Creole languages, I try to think of ways in which we can use the history of Creole languages to introduce larger issues connected to linguistics, identity, history, sociology, education. So I've been teaching this course now for the past 10 years.