Month: March 2014

Remembering Dr. George Wasson who passed Wednesday March 19, 2013

Posted on by rossa@uoregon.edu

We as a community at the University of Oregon have been blessed to have been mentored by Dr. George Wasson for so many years. To have been touched by his guidance and his inspiring storytelling – we are particularly fortunate to have experienced his stories just last week at a traditional storytelling event hosted at the University of Oregon’s Many Nations Longhouse.

Dr. Wasson was responsible for launching the Southwest Oregon Research Project where he led the efforts that stitched together tribal history between the 1800s and mid-1900s using thousands of historical documents. As one of the first Oregon tribal PhDs, Dr. Wasson will continue to be an important figure to tribal people throughout Oregon and the Northwest. He was revered for his craft at traditional storytelling.
As the Register Guard details, Dr. Wasson received his B.A in music in 1969, a Master’s degree in counseling in 1971, a Master’s degree in Anthropology in 1994, and then his doctorate in Anthropology afterwards. He worked as an adjunct instructor in anthropology at the UO from 2003-2011 before retiring. NILI offers our condolences to his family and loved ones. Truly, his work and contributions will be valued and remembered into the ages.

NILI at the American Association for Applied Linguistics Conference

Posted on by rossa@uoregon.edu

On Monday, March 24, 2014 from 3:35 to 6:35pm at the Portland Marriot Downtown Waterfront, the AAAL Annual Conference will host a special session Supporting Maintenance and Revitalization of North American Indigenous Languages: Collaborations between Communities, Applied and Theoretical Linguists. Several NILI staff will be in attendance and presenting in several different sessions.

Janne Underriner will be co-presenting with Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins from the University of Victoria and Keren Rice from the University of Toronto. Dr. Underriner and her co-presenters will discuss and illustrate language loss, the efforts made by community members, theoretical and applied linguists and educators to reverse this loss, and some of the issues that arise in this work. The partnerships and case studies highlighted in this session demonstrate the region’s exceptionally high level of collaboration, activism and innovation in research methodologies, in research on language loss and reclamation, and in the development and delivery of educational programs within communities and in academic contexts.

Zalmai Zahir will be presenting on Motivation for language learning and use. Motivation is key to language maintenance. If we are not clear as to why we want to learn and speak a language, it is difficult  to establish its use beyond the classroom. This presentation is about how to get learners to discover their own motivations. Joana Jansen and Virginia Beavert will be presenting on community-centered course development for Ichishkiin language classes at University of Oregon. This presentation will describe the Ichishkiin/Sahaptin language course that is taught at the University of Oregon within a framework of mindful collaboration. Tribal language programs and tribal members are stakeholders and partners. Their presentation will discuss how the ongoing development of the course has changed and strengthened due to collaborative partnerships.

Come join them and share your perspective.