This course aims to (i) enable students to explore the ways in which language and culture are mutually embedded in one another and can be advantageously studied in a social context; (ii) increase awareness of discourse both as a means of cultural and social reproduction and resistance; (iii) enhance students' skills in critiquing cultural and social issues by means of rigorous linguistic analysis; (iv) equip students as a new generation of critical-thinking analysts, translators, and linguists.