Research

Eyak is a Na-Dené language once spoken in south-central Alaska. The last native speaker of Eyak passed away in 2008, but the community is undertaking concerted efforts to revitalize their language and traditions. My research involves the creation of pedagogical materials for an Eyak learner's grammar. I am also developing a Finite State Transducer for the morphological analysis of Eyak, which can be used to create spell-checkers, interactive dictionaries, and app-based language learning tools.

I am interested in the use of community radio as a vehicle for indigenous language revitalization, and I am currently conducting a comparative analysis of various community radio initiatives in North America and Oceania.

 With the help of local language experts and community organizers, I have been working on the documentation of Nongtrai, a previously undescribed Austroasiatic language spoken in the West Khasi Hills of Meghalaya.