This volume is the second in a working papers series initiated by the Department of Linguistics at Indiana University and the Indiana University Linguistics Club to showcase the research of our students, faculty, and alumni. Each volume focuses on a theme that reflects one of our strengths. Accordingly, the focus of this second volume is sociolinguistics. Pidgins and creoles, languages in contact, political discourse, new varieties of French and English, regional vs. central norms, language planning, and sociolinguistic variation are the main topics treated in one or more papers in this volume.