2013-2014, Undergraduate Student - Linguistics and Spanish double major, Jewish Studies minor
Biography:
I am a rising junior here at University Park. Currently, I am working to earn concurrent majors in Linguistics (Bachelor of Philosophy) and Spanish, alongside a minor in Jewish Studies. Since Fall 2013, I have had the opportunity to work with Dr. John Lipski studying the bilingual community of Palenque, Colombia.
My research will begin in May with a two week trip to Palenque. Palenqueros speak Lengua Palenquera and Spanish. I will be meeting with members from the communities surrounding Palenque to learn how their perceptions of Lengua -- a traditionally stigmatized language -- might be changing. Furthermore, I will be looking to find out how well Palenque‘s neighbors can understand Lengua, a language which shares many lexical and semantic qualities with Spanish.
Through the PIRE program, I am able to bring the data I collect in Colombia to Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. At Radboud, I will have the honor to work with and study under renowned creolist, Dr. Pieter Muysken. Beyond analyzing my own data, I will learn of the latest research in bilingualism and marginalized speech communities across the globe.
When I‘m not investigating bilingualism, I am involved on and off campus. I enjoy working as a writing tutor in the Penn State Writing Center and as an elementary Hebrew teacher at Congregation Brit Shalom. I‘m also an active volunteer for THON, and, as a member of PSU Food for Thought, I am helping to plan the first “Strides of March” 5K fundraiser to fight malnutrition in the Horn of Africa.