Professional Bio

As an interdisciplinary scholar, Ariana works with theories and methods spanning disciplines from sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology to trans/gender studies, Black feminisms, and more. Their work critically examines how those othered by race and gender manage categories and boundaries using semiotic resources such as language, clothing, and the body.  

Ariana’s research interests are broad but have recently explored how transness and gender non-normativity can inform research on language around boundaries and norms; the impacts of normativities, hegemony, and intersecting structural oppressions on the ways in which Black nonbinary individuals navigate various sociolinguistic contexts to construct identities beyond binaries; and the role of perception in identity work for marginalized subjectivities. Their research has been supported by the Society of Fellows and the National Science Foundation, amongst others. 

In addition to their individual research, Ariana convenes an ongoing cross-disciplinary research group at Penn State, Trans/Queer: Terrains of Queerness, which explores boundaries within and across fields such as applied linguistics, linguistic anthropology, and trans and gender studies.

Selected Publications

Calder, J & Steele, A. (2025). Interrogating the cisgender listening subject in the study of trans voices. Gender and Language, 18(3). 

Steele, A. (2022). Enacting new worlds of gender: Nonbinary speakers, racialized gender, and anti-colonialism. In K. Hall & R. Barrett (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Language and Sexuality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.