Asif Agha is a Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Semiotics Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Agha earned his A.B. in Philosophy from Princeton University and his M.A. in Social Thought and Ph.D. in Linguistics and Social Thought from the University of Chicago.

Professor Agha’s research is concentrated in linguistic and cultural anthropology. Through this lens, he examines issues such as semiotics, mediatization in complex societies, and language structure and function.

Representative Publications

Agha, Asif. “The Object Called “Language” and the Subject of Linguistics.” Journal of English Linguistics 35.3 (2007): 217-235.

Agha, Asif. “Stereotypes and Registers of Honorific Language.” Language in Society 27.02 (1998): 151-193.

Agha, Asif. “Tropic Aggression in the Clinton-Dole Presidential Debate.” Pragmatics 7 (1997): 461-498.