Jessica Nelson
Department of Anthropology
Assistant Professor
BA in Cultural Anthropology, University of Michigan, 2006
MA in Linguistic Anthropology, University of Arizona, 2011
PhD in Linguistic Anthropology with a minor in Linguistics, University of Arizona,
2018
Jessica Fae Nelson is a linguistic anthropologist whose work focuses on community-based language revitalization, indigeneity, and language and social meaning. Her research interests also include gender and language, filmmaking, and video games as virtual worlds and tools for language reclamation work. Some of her favorite projects have been a Pataxó Hãhãhãe community dictionary and comparative historical linguistic reconstruction, Berenstein Bears cartoons dubbed into the Lakota language, and a Patxohã mobile dictionary app (ongoing). As a Lakota language learner herself, she also enjoys teaching Beginning and Intermediate Lakota here at UW.
Courses Taught
NAIS 1001 Intro to Native American & Indigenous Studies
NAIS 2060 Beginning Indigenous Language: Lakota
ANTH 4775/5775 Gender & Language
ANTH 4024/5005 Audiovisual Methods in Linguistic Anthropology
Selected Publications
2023 “On Pataxó Hãhãhãe and Maxakalí” International Journal of American Linguistics 89, no. 4: 531-563.
2021 “Retaking Hãhãhãe: Revitalization and Reindigenization in a Context of Indigenous Erasure” In Metalinguistic Communities: Case Studies of Agency, Ideology, and Symbolic Uses of Language. Netta Avineri and Jesse Harasta (eds). Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities. Palgrave MacMullin. 161-179. https://doi.org/10.1111/jola.12268
2016 "Lakota Men’s and Women’s speech: Gender, Metapragmatic Discourse, and Language Revitalization." In Gender, Language and the Periphery. Julie Abbou and Fabienne Baider (eds). Amsterdam, NL: John Benjamins. 257-284.
2011 (coordinating producer) “Matȟó Waúƞšila Thiwáhe.” (Lakota Berenstein Bears) DVD. PBS. lakotabears.com - In collaboration with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Lakota Language Consortium.
