Research Interests
I specialize in phonology, semantics, and language revitalization, with my current dissertation examining reduplicative morphology in O'odham. Using a corpus of reduplicative forms, I analyze their phonological and semantic properties, arguing that these forms can be reliably derived through infixation rather than ambiguous affixation processes. My work introduces the "Reduplicative Pathway," which demonstrates how phonological form is reshaped through constraint re-application driven by semantic derivation, while semantic output depends on the base form's syntactic category. I frame this analysis within "Community Linguistics," a framework that positions linguistic research at the intersection of speech communities and academic linguistics, where endangered language pedagogy informs theoretical research in a mutually beneficial, bidirectional relationship.
My research extends into substantial community-based work, including supervising a two-year language documentation project that produced a 2,000-word dictionary and 130-lesson heritage learner curriculum, designing my community's first O'odham language teacher certification exam for Arizona state certification, and developing transferable virtual language courses from elementary through advanced levels for Tohono O'odham Community College. Future research directions include experimental studies of heritage learner acquisition patterns to assess pedagogical efficacy and predict language change in revitalization contexts. This work offers both theoretical insights—particularly regarding infixation strategies and the phonology-semantics interface in reduplication—and a collaborative research model that addresses linguistics' extractive history while serving the pedagogical needs of endangered language communities.