John Baugh

John Gordon Baugh V (born December 10, 1949) is an American academic and linguist. His main areas of study are sociolinguistics, forensic linguistics, education, and African American language studies. He is currently the Margaret Bush Wilson Professor in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, and President of the Linguistic Society of America. In 2020 Baugh was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the section on Linguistics and Language Sciences, and in 2021 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Baugh was previously a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and of the Rockefeller Foundation. He served as president of the American Dialect Society from 1992 to 1994 and as the Edward Sapir Professor during the 2019 Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute.

Baugh is best known for developing the theory of linguistic profiling, which occurs when someone’s speech triggers discriminatory bias against them, such as when they are seeking employment or housing. As a result of this work, Baugh has served as an expert witness and consultant in various legal cases, frequently working with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Fair Housing Alliance, and the United States Department of Justice, among other organizations.

Baugh is the author or co-editor of twelve books, including Black Street Speech: Its History, Structure, and Survival; Out of the Mouths of Slaves: African American Language and Educational Malpractice; Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic Pride and Racial Prejudice; and Linguistics in Pursuit of Justice. He has advised and appeared in several linguistic documentaries such as Do You Speak American? and Talking Black in America, and he has been featured in publications including Business Insider, The Washington Post, The Economist, and The Atlantic.