My research emphasizes the study of the Spanish
language from a linguistic perspective, while also exploring
language in its social, cultural and historical contexts.
Upon completing my Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley,
my focus was on the history and typology of the major Romance languages
(French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian). Since then, I have become fascinated
by "marginal" speech communities that are of great historical
importance to understanding the evolution of American Spanish. Included
among these communities is the maroon village of El Palenque de San
Basilio (Colombia), where a Spanish Creole is still spoken today.
More recently my field work and research have taken me to Highland Ecuador
and Cuba. I have just completed a book on the Cuban ritual language
of Palo Monte (a religious practice somewhat akin to Santería),
whose true African roots can now be traced for the first time. I am
also actively researching Central West-African languages (especially
Kikongo), once widely spoken in the Americas during the slave trade.
INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH AREAS:
- Latin
American Spanish/Portuguese (especially synchrony and diachrony
of colloquial Afro-American speech [Caribbean Spanish, Brazilian
Portuguese, etc.]).
- African
influences in Latin America (language & culture)
- Iberian-based
Creoles (Palenquero, Papiamentu, etc.)
- Ritual
languages of Black America ("Habla Congo" of [Cuba],
"lumbalú" of Palenque [Colombia], etc.)
- Africanizing
religious practices of Latin America
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My
course offerings emphasize the study of the Spanish language from a
linguistic perspective, while also exploring language in its social,
cultural and historical contexts. Courses I routinely teach include
History of the Spanish Language, Intro to Spanish Phonetics and Phonology,
Latin American Spanish, Spanish in the USA, and Introduction to Pidgin
and Creole Languages.
I very much enjoy teaching, and have always sought to inform and engage
my students. Over the past five years I have taught as Visiting Professor
at several institutions (University of Amsterdam, Brigham Young University
of Utah, etc.)
and worked in Costa Rica as Director of UC's Education Abroad Program
(1999-2001). In 2002 and 2003, I offered a series of research seminars
at various institutions in Cuba (e.g. Academia de Ciencias in Havana).
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| Undergraduate |
Spanish
Phonetics, Spanish Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Pidgin
and Creole Languages, Latin American Spanish, Spanish in the
USA, Language and Globalization, etc. |
| Graduate |
History
of the Spanish language; Latin American Spanish, Spanish in
the USA, Pidgin and Creole Languages, etc. |
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