Steering Committee

Director

CILLA was led by the late Nora C. England, Dallas TACA Centennial Professor in Humanities in the Department of Linguistics, a specialist in Mayan linguistics, with principal research interests in the analysis and description of contemporary Mayan languages, language identity, language politics, and language ideologies.

She was the founder of and adviser to Oxlajuuj Keej Maya' Ajtz'iib' (OKMA), a Guatemalan Mayan institute devoted to research and teaching on Mayan languages and linguistics. Throughout her career she has been principally concerned with conveying linguistic knowledge to speakers of Mayan languages so that they have the necessary tools for linguistic research and for applying that knowledge to language maintenance and Mayan education. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1993 for her work in Guatemala.

Members

Megan Crowhurst
Associate Professor of Linguistics, Department of Linguistics
Interests: Bolivian indigenous languages; phonology, speech perception

Patience Epps Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics
Interests: Amazonian languages; linguistic typology; languages in contact

Telma Can Pixabaj
Graduate student, Department of Linguistics
Interests: K’ichee’ (Mayan)

David Stuart Linda and David Schele Chair in the Art and Writing of Mesoamerica, Department of Art and Art History
Interests: Mayan and Mesoamerican writing; ancient Mayan history and archaeology

Anthony C. Woodbury Professor, Department of Linguistics
Interests: Native American linguistics; Eskimo; grammatical theory; field linguistics; oral discourse