My research and 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. 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. My publications include several books and over 40 scholarly articles. I am Associate Editor of the Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages and Co-Editor of the recently founded Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana (RILI). I have organized many conferences, and presented over 120 papers at national and international meetings. In 2004-2005 I presented my latest research findings in a number of countries (e.g., Curçao, Germany, Puerto Rico, and Spain), and this year I intend to participate in conferences to be held in France, Cuba, and Switzerland. 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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