Akasha Synclair (she/her)

Started: 2026

akhalsa2@unm.edu

I focus on language documentation, revitalization, and reclamation. I am currently working on Chapacuran languages under the guidance of Dr. Joshua Birchall. I have also been privileged to do some work on Southern Tiwa phonology with permission.

Amelia Abbott (she/her)

Started: 2025

ameliaabbott@unm.edu 

My research interests lie in understanding M2L2 (second modality second language) acquisition, in which a language user becomes multilingual across multiple modalities (whether spoken, signed, or haptic). My current research focuses on hearing L1 English speakers learning American Sign Language (ASL), and how they transfer aspects of their L1 to the L2 (and vice versa), as well as how language processing in multiple modalities can affect cognition.

Bethany Lycan

Started: 2021 - Greenberg Fellow

blycan@unm.edu

My primary interests include usage-based syntax, typology, and language revitalization.

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Bruno Pinto Silva

Started: 2022 - Greenberg Fellow

bpslinguist@unm.edu

 My main interests include the documentation and description of languages labeled “Creoles” and “Pidgins.” I am particularly interested in contributing to the description of the Phonetics and Phonology of these languages. For the last eight years, I have been working on Haitian Creole.
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Danielle Angier

Started: 2023

dangier1@unm.edu

My research interests are in syntactic and semantic change, specifically in terms of how diachronic evidence can be used to explain synchronic variation. I am particularly interested in identifying contexts for change and the mechanisms through which change occurs and leads to the variation we see today, following a usage-based, constructional perspective.

Daven Hobbs

Started: 2018 - Greenberg Fellow

dhobbs@unm.edu

My research interests are in cognitive and historical/evolutionary linguistics. For my dissertation I am building a diachronic corpus of texts in Tupi, an indigenous language of Brazil, to track changes in its morphosyntax over a period of roughly five centuries.

Ece Eroglu (she/her)

Started: 2025 - Greenberg Fellow

eeroglu@unm.edu 

My research focuses on the morpho-phonology and prosody of sign languages, along with grammaticalization processes in the visual-spatial modality. I currently study the formal properties of pointing signs in Turkish Sign Language (TİD), and my work also extends to how delayed exposure to sign languages affects language production.

Eliza Forrest (they/them)

Started: 2024 - Greenberg Fellow

asterforrest@unm.edu

Eliza is a PhD student in Linguistics. Their interests are at the intersection of sociolinguistics, disability studies, and accessible design. They are the lab manager of the Lobo Language Acquisition Lab where they work on educational outreach projects that focus on language diversity and linguistic bias.

Frances Jones

Started: 2017

jonesf@unm.edu

My research interests include language contact, language variation, and language documentation. My primary focus is on language use in New Mexico, which I explore by documenting and describing varieties of English in the state from a variationist sociolinguistic perspective, as well as analyzing language contact effects between English and Spanish in New Mexican communities.

Henry Atticus Pereira Mackall (they/them)

Started: 2025

hmackall@unm.edu 

My main research interests consist of historical linguistics, phonetics & phonology, and sociolinguistics. I have chosen to focus on Native American languages as part of my research so as to broaden the scope of knowledge available for this area of the world's languages. Currently, I am working on developing the proto-language for the Caddoan language family.

Ivette S. González

Started: 2020

ivgonzalez@unm.edu

My research interests are in documentary linguistics and the revitalization of indigenous languages of California. I work in collaborative projects to document the Paipai language (Yuman, ISO code ppi) spoken in the peninsula of Baja California, Mexico.

Gonzalez, Ivette S. 2020. Paipai (Baja California, Mexico) – Language Snapshot. Language Documentation and Description 17, 150-157.

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Joonyeop Baek

Started: 2016

jybaek@unm.edu

My main research areas are Cognitive Semantics and Pragmatics. I am interested in studying the conceptual structures of our mind within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics. To be more specific, I want to find out how the implicit conceptual systems such as metaphor, mental spaces, viewpoints influence our thinking process, and how they are disclosed in our language uses. 

Lee Ferrin (she/her/ella)

Started: 2024

lferrin@unm.edu

Lee's research interests are methods of language revitalization, as well as documenting child speech and child-directed speech in endangered and low-resource languages. For more info, see leeferrin.com

Mariana Willenbrink-Marchesi (She/Ella)

Started: 2020

mmarchesi@unm.edu

Originally from Argentina, Mariana is a PhD student in Linguistics, currently working on her dissertation proposal. Her academic background includes an MA in TESOL and a BA in K-12 ESL education. Her research focuses on children's acquisition of minority languages, specifically examining how child heritage speakers use demonstratives in both Spanish and English in terms of form and function. One of her current goals is to advocate for the use of bilingual corpora as the target parameter in bilingual language acquisition analysis, instead of the traditional normative monolingual benchmarks.

Meagan Vigus

Started: 2016 - Greenberg Fellow

mvigus@unm.edu

As a recipient of the Greenberg Fellowship, I am interested in understanding the cognitive underpinnings of language through the analysis of typological data. My research focuses mostly on verbal semantics, argument structure, and argument structure alternations in a cross-linguistic perspective. I'm also involved in the Uniform Meaning Representation project.

Motomi Kajitani

Started: 2008

mkajitan@unm.edu

 I am interested in cognitive pragmatic analyses of discourse markers from crosslinguistic perspectives. My current research topics are interactions among exemplification, hedging, topic management, stance, and mirativity.

Nicholás Chávez

Started: 2025

nchavez12@unm.edu

My research explores the intersection of Cognitive Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis. My work explores how cognitive processes are utilized by ideological discursive formations – speech communities with ideological norms – to transform dominant ideologies into non-ideological common-sense within public discourses. I conduct work on Southwestern identity, labor movements, and disability discourses.

Patrick "Patty" Barrett (He/him)

Started: 2025

patrickbarrett@unm.edu

Hi y'all! I'm a PhD student from Greensboro, North Carolina who loves languages. In particular, my research interests include language revitalization, historical linguistics, typology, descriptive linguistics, and usage-based approaches to the core subfields of linguistics.

Rachid Lazhar Saghrouni

Started: 2010

ezzahra8@unm.edu 

In my dissertation research, I seek to determine how preschool-aged, Tunisian Arabic-speaking children learn to use their morphologically complex verbs productively. By viewing the emergence of linguistic productivity as a tradeoff between computation and storage, I seek to demonstrate that the controversial dichotomous characterization of productivity as either gradient or categorical is a fake dichotomy.

Raz Parker (they/he)

Started: 2026

razparker@unm.edu

My research interests are iconicity, and how iconicity is affected by the phonotactics of a given language. I also make extensive use of NLP approaches in my research. I previously worked as a German and Japanese translator, and these languages remain my primary research languages.

Samuel Melada

Started: 2022

SMelada@salud.unm.edu

I am a Neuroscience Nurse Educator at UNM hospital, and I am particularly interested in the neuro anatomy of language. I am also very interested in Discourse Analysis related to healthcare and how medical ethics are discussed and the ways in which patients interact with the healthcare system and nurses, doctors and other healthcare providers.

Sean Lundergan

Started: 2023 - Greenberg Fellow

seanlundergan@unm.edu

I'm interested in sociophonetics, phonetic and phonological variation, and dialect contact. I've previously studied leveling of regional vowel features in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Shewar Khan

Started: 2024

Sofi Mackler (she/her)

Started: 2026

smackler@unm.edu

My primary research is based on typology in contact linguistics with a focus on phonology and morphology in loanwords and loanword adpation. Some particular languages of interest include Jewish languages, Semitic languages, and languages of East Asia such as Sinitic and Japonic.

Toby Fowler (he/him)

Started: 2025

tobyfowler@unm.edu 

I'm interested in verbal morphology and morphophonology, the languages of the Pacific Northwest and California, as well as Construction Grammar and other usage-based approaches to linguistics. I'm also interested in language change, focusing on grammaticalization and the development of areal features.

Zachary Schultz (he/him)

Started: 2026

zschultz@unm.edu 

I am currently a scientist of natural language applications in automated scoring and assessment. I joined the Linguistics Program in order to pursue research interests in language acquisition, language transfer, and sociolinguistics. I am particularly interested in how research in these areas can influence and improve foreign language education and resources for students.

Alyssa-Marie Sanchez (she/her they/them)

Started: 2025

alyssa12354@unm.edu 

I received my undergrad at UNM in Speech and Hearing Sciences and Linguistics, and I am excited to continue on with my Masters at UNM. My interests include cognitive linguistics, pyscholinguistics, sociolinguistics, as well as language documentation and semantics.

Amelie Umholtz

Started: 2026

Anna Deutsch (She/Her)

Started: 2025

adeutsch@unm.edu

My research centers on the sociolinguistics of sign languages. In particular, I focus on Japanese Sign Language (JSL) and Korean Sign Language (KSL), looking at various sociolects/dialects, cultural influences, and mutual intelligibility. Most of my recent work has concerned regional dialect usage and lexico-semantic comparisons. In addition to these areas, I am also interested in language documentation and revitalization, dictionary and corpus creation, and writing systems.

Annie Merrill (she/her)

Started: 2024

anniem23@unm.edu

Having barely scratched the surface of linguistics, I don't yet know what I wish to focus on. Broadly stated, my goal is to develop a broad understanding of different areas of linguistics and identify what interests me most. I am fascinated by semiotics and the creation of meaning, especially in relation to other mediums like music, but I find morphology problems fun to solve. I love looking at the ways that languages clash, change, and affect each other.

Isiah Cambridge

Started: 2025

Karina Schenk (she/her)

Started: 2025

karina2020@unm.edu

My research interests are extensive because I am always excited to keep learning! Some of my favorite research interests right now include morphosyntax and child language acquisition, specifically acquisition in bilingual children. Morphosyntax, bilingual language acquisition, and sociolinguistics create an important foundation to understand the academic needs of children and youth. Understanding these needs will pave a future with stronger, more informed educators who can reach more students and build lifelong learners. I aim to make a valuable contribution to these goals.

Kayleigh Russell (She/Her)

Started: 2025

klr398@unm.edu

Kayleigh Russell earned her BS in Signed Language Interpreting and BA in Psychology with a minor in Navajo language at UNM in 2025. While she is new to the field of linguistics, her interests lie in bilingualism, language documentation, interpreting, and Hand Talk.

Laurence Case

Started: 2026

Nick Underwood

Started: 2026

Rochelle Herrera

Started: 2026

Savannah Hinson Rivas (she/her/ella)

Started: 2025

My research interests are broad and include semantic and phonological typology, language contact, cognitive linguistics, and computational methodologies.

Sylvia Fullerton

Started: 2025

Vianne Basulto (she/her)

Started: 2025

vianne@unm.edu

I received my BA in Linguistics at the University of Chicago. My research interests broadly include Uto-Aztecan morphosyntax, valency change, language documentation, and language revitalization. I am especially interested in the revival of Tongva and have extensively studied Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl and "Classical" Nahuatl varieties.

William A. Pacheco (He/Him)

Started: 2026

wpacheco@unm.edu

I am Kewameh, a member of the Santo Domingo Pueblo (Kewa) community and a first-language speaker of Kewa Wehkahni (Eastern Keres). Before returning to UNM, I taught Kewa Keres at Santa Fe Indian School, earned an M.Ed. in Learning Design, Innovation & Technology from Harvard, and completed an M.S. in Linguistics at MIT's Indigenous Language Initiative, where I wrote a community-authored grammar sketch of my home dialect. My research focuses on Indigenous-led documentation of Keres phonetics, phonology, and morphosyntax, and on building open, locally-run digital tools that support language teaching and vitality in Native communities. I am also fairly new to the field of linguistics -- I initially pursued my degrees to improve the way I taught Kewa Keres, and to share them with others. At MIT, I was immersed in the generative approach to linguistics, and here at UNM I am excited to extend my experience with phonology and language documentation.

Yidan Zhang

Started: 2026