Our recent MIT Indigenous Language Initiative (MITILI) graduate Will Pacheco has joined the University of New Mexico’s Linguistics program, pursuing a PhD by way of an MA in Linguistics. UNM has a strong language documentation program, and Will is excited to be home to continue his research on Kewa Keres with the community, building on an interest in phonetics and phonology that was strongly shaped by his conversations with Edward Flemming. Inspired by Amy Li, et al., Will is also starting a spectrogram reading group at UNM. Will has also joined RURAL (Resources for Understanding, Revitalizing, and Advancing Languages) as a Research Assistant, which provides monthly language documentation training for community members and teachers from endangered language communities across New Mexico, covering topics such as an introduction to linguistics and audio and video recording techniques. Will hopes to maintain his connections to MITILI and MIT Linguistics and is grateful to everyone in the department for their support during his time at MIT.
Congratulations, Will! We are so pround of you!