Professional Experience
Jan. 1980 - Aug. 1981: Lecturer, University of the West Indies, Mona,
Jamaica.
Sept. 1981- Aug. 1986: Assistant Professor, University of Georgia, Athens.
Sept. 1986 - Aug. 1991: Associate Professor, University of Georgia,
Athens.
Sept. 1991 - Dec. 1991: Full Professor, University of Georgia, Athens.
Dec. 1991-: Full Professor, University of Chicago.
July 1995 - June 2001: Chair, Department of Linguistics, University
of Chicago.
July & August 2001: Visiting Professor, University of the West Indies,
Mona, Jamaica
October & November 2001: Visiting Professor, National University
of Singapore
Spring semester 2002: Visiting Professor, Harvard University
July 2002- June 2004: Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago
July 2002-: Affiliate faculty member, Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture
July 2004-: The Frank J. McLoraine Distinguished Service Professor of Linguistics and the College
December 2004-: Committee on Evolutionary Biology
April 2005-: Associate member, Department of Comparative Human Development
Fields of Specialization/Interest
- Language evolution, from a population genetics and ecological perspective;
Development of creoles; Language endangerment.
- Semantics and syntax.
Major languages of study: English, Gullah, Black English, Caribbean
English creoles, Bantu languages (in particular: Lingala, Kikongo-Kituba,
and Kiyansi), French.
- language contact, and sociolinguistics. A number of my publications
involve a combination of semantics and all these perspectives.
Honors, Fellowships, and Grants
1974-79: Fulbright Fellowship, University of Chicago
1978a: Giles Whiting Fellowship for dissertation work.
1978b: Nominated alternate for William Rainey Harper Fellowship, University
of Chi-cago ("the highest honor the University can bestow,"
according to the Vice-President of the University).
1982: Independent Study and Research Fellowship, NEH (to start my study
of Gullah morphosyntax in Spring and Summer 1983).
1983a: University of Georgia Faculty Research Grant to cover travel
expenses during my Gullah investigation project.
1983b: Sarah Moss Fellowship for a seminar on African Languages in Zaire
(U. of Kinshasa) in Summer 1984.
1985a: NSF grant # BNS 8519315 to conduct field research on Gullah from
April 1986 to September 1988 ($60,000).
1985b: ACLS travel grant to participate in the "cinquième Colloque
International des Etudes Créoles" in Réunion (Indian
Ocean)
1986: Listed in Marquis Who's Who in the South and Southwest, 20th edition
(1986-87).
1987a: NSF grant to organize an International Round Table on Africanisms
in Afro-American Language Varieties, 25-27 Feb. 1988. ($22,187)
1987b: Listed in Marquis Who's Who of Emerging Leaders in America.
(July, First Edition)
1988a: Listed in Men of Achievement, Int'l. Biographical Centre,
Cambridge, England.
1988b. Summer Stipends, National Endowment for the Humanities. ($3,500)
1989a: Creative Research Medal, UGA Research Foundation
1989b: "Professeur invité," Université Jean-Moulin,
Lyon, France. Fall quarter.
1992: NSF grant toward the publication costs of Africanisms in Afro-American
lan-guage varieties with the University of Georgia Press. ($11,214)
July 1999: taught at the LSA Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana.
May 2000: Visiting Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology, Leipzig
July & August 2001: Visiting Professor, Universllèity of the West Indies,
Mona, Jamaica.
October & November 2001: Visiting Professor, National University
of Singapore.
January - June 2002: Visiting Professor, Harvard University.
Listed/Articled in Elsevier’s Concise Encyclopedia of Sociolinguistics, 2002
15 November - 15 December 2003, Professeur invité, Coge de France, Paris.
9 December 2003, awarded a “Médaille du Collège de France.”
November & December 2004. Professeur invité. Université de Paris III: Créoles et l’évolution linguistique
Listed/“Articled” in Elsevier’s Encyclopedia of Languages and Linguistics, 2005
February 11-17, 2005 taught at the Linguistic Institute of ABRALIN 2005, Linguistic Society of Brasil: The Ecology of Language Evolution
June 13-23, 2005: Professeur Invité, Université Antilles-Guyane in Martinique, teaching a crash course on language evolution
June 27-July 15: taught at the LSA Institute, MIT&Harvard: The Ecology of Language Evolution
Membership in Professional Society Committees
- Executive Committee, Chicago Linguistic Society, 1975-76.
- Interdepartmental Group for Linguistics, The University Center in
Georgia,
Chair, July 1982-June 1984.
Co-chair, Sept. 1985-June 1986.
Chair July 1989-June 1990.
- Editorial Committee, American Journal of Lexicography, 1983.
- Editorial Boards, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages and Creole
Language Library, 1985-
- Executive Committee, Society for Caribbean Linguistics, 1986-1988.
- Editorial Board, American Speech, 1987-1989.
- Executive Committee, Southeastern Conference on Linguistics, Nov.
1986-Oct. 1989.
- Columnist, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, vols. 3-4,
1988 & 1989.
- Documentaries Committee, American Dialect Society, 1987-1989.
- Editorial Board, Occasional Papers, Society for Caribbean Linguistics,
1988-
- Review Editor, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 4, 1989.
- Associate Editor, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 5-10,
1990-1995
- Steering Committee, Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, Feb
1988 - Dec 1989.
- Member, Task Force for Annual Conference on African Linguis-tics,
1989-1990.
- Program Committee, Linguistic Society of America, Jan 1990 - Dec 1992;
Chair 1992.
- Editorial Board, Studies in African Linguistics, 1992-1998.
- Editorial Advisory Board, World Englishes, Jan. 1993-
- NSF Advisory Panel, Oct. 1992 - June 1995.
- Scientific Advisory Board, Languages of the World, Nov. 1992-
- Conseil International de la Recherche et d'Etude en Linguistique Fondamentale
et Ap-pliquée (CIRELFA), Jan. 1994-1999
- Editorial Board, Language Variation and Change, 1997-
- Executive Committee, APRODEC, Spring 1996-
- Executive Committee, Linguistic Society of America, Jan 1999-Dec 2001.
- Series Editor, Approaches to Language Contact, Cambridge University
Press, 1999-
- Editorial Board, Langage et Société, 1999-
- Advisory Board, Langues, 1999-
- Atéliers langues, Agence de la Francophonie, Paris, 2000:
- Conseil International Francophone des Langues (CIFLA), 2000-
- Executive Committee, Society for Caribbean Linguistics, 2000-
- Advisory Board, Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Southern
Africa, 2000-
- Vice President, Society for Caribbean Linguistics, 2002-2004.
- President, Society for Caribbean Linguistics, 2004-2006
- Editorial Board, Language and Society, Jan. 2005-
|