Stephen Fafulas studying indigenous communities along the Peruvian Amazo

Smith, Edwin B.

English

eGrove (Univ. of Mississippi)

University of Mississippi eGrove University of Mississippi News 7-27-2022 Professor Using NEH Summer Stipend for Language Study Edwin B. Smith Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/umnews Recommended Citation Smith, Edwin B., "Professor Using NEH Summer Stipend for Language Study" (2022). University of Mississippi News. 4202. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/umnews/4202 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Mississippi News by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact egrove@olemiss.edu. Search this website … SearchUM professor Stephen Fafulas is continuing his study of Spanish dialects in the Loreto area of the PeruvianAmazon this summer, thanks to a National Endowment for the Humanities stipend. He is using data hecollected during a 2011 visit to the region. Submitted photoProfessor Using NEH Summer Stipend for LanguageStudyStephen Fafulas studying indigenous communities along the PeruvianAmazonJULY 27, 2022 BY EDWIN B. SMITHOXFORD, Miss. – A University of Mississippi professor is spending his summer translating Spanishtranscriptions of his interviews with members of indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon intoEnglish, thanks to a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities.Stephen Fafulas, associate professor of Spanish and linguistics, is using data he collected duringfieldwork in 2011 to complete “Documenting Language Practices, Cultures and Ideologies amongIndigenous Communities in the Peruvian Amazon.” The data comes from interviews within communitiesof three distinct indigenous languages in the Peruvian Amazon.Numerous indigenous languages coexist with Spanish, the national language of Peru. Fafulas hopes touse what he learns to publish his research and then identify funding to keep going back to continue hisinvestigation.“Peru’s indigenous languages are steadily losing status and power to Spanish as speakers look toincrease their upward social mobility and gain access to the greater health care, educational andeconomic sectors of the country,” he said. “My project documents the linguistic, cultural and socialaspects of indigenous communities undergoing language shift in the Peruvian Amazon.“The linguistic structures of indigenous languages are of great scientific interest for a host of theoreticaland typological reasons.”Additionally, so are the cultural practices of the local communities, given their place within the richbiodiversity of the Amazonian region, he said.“It is timely to document the linguistic and cultural practices of the Amazonian communities, includinglanguage samples of the indigenous languages and their emerging Spanish dialects before they aregone,” Fafulas said. “By valorizing the indigenous languages and having the community’s needsacknowledged, these communities may be able to reverse the tide of losing their cultural legacy.”His project empirically documents the linguistic, ideological and cultural legacies of indigenouspopulations in the Peruvian Amazon to show:Read the story …Read the story …Follow us on socialCampus BriefsDonations Sought for 25th AnnualBooks and Bears ProgramOXFORD, Miss. – The University ofMississippi is asking the community tohelp spread a little joy this holiday seasonby donating to the 25th annual Books andBears program. Donations such as toys,books, dolls, bicycles and other children’splay items are being accepted throughDec. 14. All donations will be collected andsortedMore Posts from this CategoryThank You To OurDonorsMississippi Excellence in CoachingFellowship Aims to Build LeadersOXFORD, Miss. – Twenty-five inauguralrecipients of the Mississippi Excellence inCoaching Fellowship – a program hostedby the University of Mississippi School ofEducation in partnership with theMississippi Association of Coaches andthe Mississippi High School ActivitiesAssociation – are expected to increasetheir impact on student-athletes and theircommunities. The coaching fellowshipMore Posts from this CategoryOle Miss In the NewsClarion-Ledger: New EssayCollection Tells the Story ofMeredith’s EnrollmentEssays celebrate 60th anniversary ofJames Meredith’s enrollment at Universityof Mississippi By Lauren Rhoades Oct. 1marks the 60th anniversary of JamesMeredith’s 1962 enrollment atthe University of Mississippi as theschool’s first African-American student.News Releases UM COVID-19 Video Gallery University Communications Ole Miss Homepage Ole Miss News BlogFacebookTwitterLin edInEmailCopyLinkSMSPrintFriendlySharFacebookTwitterInstagramLinkedInYouTubeChannelStephen Fafulas visited villages inthe Loreto area of the PeruvianAmazon in 2011 to interviewpeople and conduct fieldwork forhis project. Submitted photoHow these legacies can be used in efforts to revitalize, valorize and better understand indigenouspeoples and languages in the Peruvian Amazon.What the emerging ethnolinguistic Spanish varieties in the Peruvian Amazon can add to currenttheoretical and empirical research in various subfields of linguistics.Fafulas was one of only two UM faculty nominations allowed for thishighly competitive annual competition. Following a four-level reviewprocess, only about 11% of applications nationwide are selected byNEH for an award each year.His success reflects the quality of Fafulas’ research and of theoverall level of excellence in the department, said Donald Dyer,associate dean for faculty and academic affairs in the College ofLiberal Arts and distinguished professor of modern languages.“Dr. Fafulas was chosen from among a large number of applicantsnationwide for this award after being selected as one of only twoUniversity of Mississippi participants in the competition,” Dyer said.“Dr. Fafulas’s work in the indigenous languages of the PeruvianAmazon has extremely important implications for the field and bringsimportant recognition to the Department of Modern Languages inparticular and the College of Liberal Arts and the University ofMississippi in a broader sense.” To complement the NEH stipend, all UM nominees and awardeesalso receive a supplemental humanities stipend from the university’s Office of Research andSponsored Programs and the College of Liberal Arts.“Generous funding through the NEH summer stipend and the supplemental award are allowing me todedicate the summer months to completing a peer-reviewed journal article to publish the findings froman ongoing analysis of how Spanish is emerging in these indigenous communities in the northernPeruvian Amazon region where Bora, Ocaina and Yagua, three endangered indigenous languages, arespoken,” Fafulas said.“Importantly, this study offers an assessment of the language vitality of Bora, Ocaina and Yagua, basedon self-reported proficiency and intergenerational transmission data, as well as a comparative view ofcommunity ideologies and cultural practices across generations from participant interviews.”Fafulas first traveled to the region in 2003 with Project Amazonas, a nonprofit humanitarian,conservation and educational organization. He has remained in contact with the organization, localcommunity members and researchers working to document indigenous languages in the region.In 2011, he returned with funding from an Indiana University Pre-Dissertation Research Travel Grant andjoined Project Amazonas to conduct sociolinguistic fieldwork.In 2020, Fafulas published “Amazonian Spanish: Language Contact andEvolution” (John Benjamins Publishing). This is the first full-length volume– written in English – to document the spread of Spanish and thelinguistic, social and historical characteristics of indigenous languagecommunities undergoing language shift and acculturation in the Amazonregion.Daniel O’Sullivan, chair of the modern languages department and aprofessor of French, said Fafulas is highly deserving of the award.“Dr. Fafulas is one of the strongest researchers we have in modernlanguages and, I would argue, the College of Liberal Arts,” he said. “Hehas established himself as one of the foremost authorities on Spanishvarieties all over the world and especially languages in the PeruvianAmazon.“It’s an honor to chair a department with such strong researchers among its faculty. It makesrecruitment and retention of both faculty and graduate students that much easier.”FILED UNDER: COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS, NEWS RELEASES, RESEARCH AND SPONSORED PROGRAMSRead the story …“James Meredith: Breaking the Barrier,” acollection of essays edited by UMprofessor of journalism Kathleen Wickham,honors this historic milestone withMore Posts from this CategoryRetu rn  to  to p  o f  p a ge Copyright © 2022 · Th e Un iversity  o f  M ississ ip p i

Professor Using NEH Summer Stipend for Language Study

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Professor Using NEH Summer Stipend for Language Study

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