I am an Anthropologist!
My research examines the cultural contexts of language acquisition, in order to support language vitality and enhance the well-being of multilingual children. I conduct fieldwork on Sino-Tibetan languages, in collaboration with communities living in their homelands, as well as in diaspora in Canada.
My fieldwork with Tibetan children has taken me to Amdo (Qinghai, China), Dharamsala (India), Kathmandu and Pokhara (Nepal), Jackson Heights (New York City), and New Westminster (metro Vancouver).
My research highlights how children dynamically shape the grammar of their mother tongues and adapt their language use to their social relationships.
Children’s creative capacity for building languages and cultural worlds informs my teaching in Anthropology, Linguistics, and Qualitative Research.
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Shannon M. Ward, Ph.D. 