Eastern Michigan University
Associate Professor
Biography
I work in the Ixil Maya region of Guatemala and with Maya immigrant communities in the United States as a linguistic and cultural anthropologist. My research considers the central role of language in the expression of historical memory and in processes of justice and political activism in solidarity with marginalized populations. Specifically, I analyze the participation of Ixil witnesses in the 2013 genocide trial of José Efraín Ríos Montt. Additionally, as Ixil people have moved to the U.S. in increasingly significant numbers over the past ten years, I have considered Ixil experiences in criminal justice, immigration, educational, and healthcare systems.
Research Interests
Language rights, experiences of indigenous immigrants, cross-cultural communication