Megan Harvey

Teaching Interests

Linguistic Anthropology, Community-centered Language Documentation, Language Revitalization, supporting students in community-engaged work

Research Interests/Specializations

Language revitalization, reawakening languages, Mayan languages, revitalization-centered language documentation, video games and language revitalization, language variation and change (particularly in communities revitalizing their languages)

Background

I study variation in languages undergoing revitalization (particularly reawakening languages) through a combination of linguistic and anthropological lenses. I strive to combine community, descriptive, and theoretical goals in my research, and am committed to revitalization-centered language documentation and fieldwork. Every aspect of my research and teaching focuses on endangered and under-resourced languages, so it is crucial that my projects are deliberately designed in conjunction with community members and their goals. 

I'm involved in a number of projects in North and Central America. I have worked with the Uspanteko community in the highlands of Guatemala since 2018, where I've co-conducted community-facing workshops on endangered language pedagogy and technology and co-authored linguistic analyses of Uspanteko tone and intonation. I have collaborated with the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana as part of a team of language workers, activists, and linguists working to reawaken the Tunica language since 2015. I'm very proud of this work which has resulted in, for example, a language textbook and language learning podcasts. I'm excited to join the Anthropology Department and The American Indian Resource Center in supporting reawakening language work here in Virginia.

I also have experience supporting leaners in learning their ancestral languages through documentation. If you are a student looking for support in this, please feel free to email me and I would be happy to offer what advice I can on locating materials and synthesizing them into something you can use to learn!

Education

B.A. in Anthropology, Linguistics, and French Tulane University 2016
M.A. in Linguistics Tulane University 2017
PhD in Linguistics University of Arizona 2023