Curriculum Vitae

View complete CV in GoogleDocs.

Current Appointments

• Professor of Linguistics, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
• Co-director, Biocultural Initiative of the Pacific, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
• Director, Catalogue of Endangered Languages
• Affiliate, Centre for Excellence in the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University
• Affiliate Professor, Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Past Appointments

• 2009-2015 Director, Alaska Native Language Archive, University of Alaska Fairbanks
• 1999-2015 Professor of Linguistics, Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Education

• Ph.D Linguistics, University of California Santa Barbara, 2000
• M.S. Mathematics, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, 1987
• B.S. Mathematics, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1986

Research Foci

• Documentation and linguistic prehistory of Dene and Papuan languages
• Landscape and spatial cognition in Alaska and Eastern Indonesia
• Development of standards for digital language archiving and data sharing

Current Projects

• Alaska Native Place Names Project [akplacenames.org]
• Eyak Grammar, Dictionary and Texts [eyak.org]
• Kaipumakani Digital Heritage Project [kaipumakani.org]
• Catalogue of Endangered Languages [endangeredlanguages.com]
• Collection Management Tools for Linguistics [meacom-linguistics]

Selected Publications

Digital Domains for Native American Languages

Holton, Gary. 2022. Digital Domains for Native American Languages. In Igor Krupnik (ed.), Hanbook of North American Indians, Vol. 1: Introduction, 211-229. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.

Place naming strategies in Inuit-Yupik and Dene languages in Alaska

Holton, Gary. 2022. Place naming strategies in Inuit-Yupik and Dene languages in Alaska. In Kenneth L. Pratt & Scott Heyes (eds.), Memory and Landscape: Indigenous Responses to a Changing North, 276–296. Athabasca: Athabasca University Press. holton-2022-place_naming.pdf

A quantitative approach to sociotopography in Austronesian languages

Pappas, Leah and Gary Holton. 2022. A quantitative approach to sociotopography in Austronesian languages. Linguistics Vanguard 8(1).11-23. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2020-0044

Indigenous Peoples, Ethics, and Linguistic Data

Holton, Gary, Wesley Y. Leonard, and Peter L. Pulsifer. 2021. People, ethics, and data. Open Handbook of Linguistic Data Management, ed. by Andrea Berez-Kroeker, Bradley McDonnell, Eve Koller, and Lauren Collister. Cambridbge: MIT Press.

Spatial orientation in the Malayo-Polynesian languages outside Oceanic

Pappas, Leah and Gary Holton. to appear. Spatial orientation in the Malayo-Polynesian languages outside Oceanic. The Oxford Guide to the Malayo-Polynesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar, ed. by Sander Adelaar and Antoinette Schapper. Oxford University Press.

Sense of place in North America

Holton, Gary and Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker. to appear. Sens of place in North America. The Languages and Linguistics of North America: A Comprehensive Guide, ed. by Carmen Jany, Marianne Mithun, Keren Rice. Mouton de Gruyter.

Language and Toponymy in Alaska and Beyond

Holton, Gary and Thomas F. Thornton. 2019. Language and Toponymy in Alaska and Beyond. Fairbanks and Honolulu: Alaska Native Language Center and University of Hawai‘i Press.

Reflections on Language Documentation 20 Years After Himmelmann 1998

McDonnell, Bradley, Andrea Berez-Kroeker, and Gary Holton. 2018. Reflections on Language Documentation 20 Years After Himmelmann 1998. (Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication no. 15.) Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Interdisciplinary language documentation

Holton, Gary. 2018. Interdisciplinary language documentation. Oxford Handbook of Endangered Languages, ed. by Kenneth Rehg and Lyle Campbell. Oxford University Press.

A unified system of spatial orientation in the Austronesian and non-Austronesian languages of Halmahera

Holton, Gary. 2017. A unified system of spatial orientation in the Austronesian and non-Austronesian languages of Halmahera. Language Contact and Substrate in Wallacea, ed. by Antoinette Schapper. NUSA 62.159-91.

The Papuan Languages of East Nusantara

Holton, Gary and Marian Klamer. 2017. The Papuan Languages of East Nusantara. The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide, ed. by Bill Palmer, 569-640. (The World of Linguistics, vol. 4.) Berlin: Mouton.

East is not a ‘big bird’: The etymology of the star Altair in the Carolinian sidereal compass.

Holton, Gary, Calistus Hachibmai, Ali Haleyalur, Jerry Lipka, and Donald Rubinstein. 2015. East is not a ‘big bird’: The etymology of the star Altair in the Carolinian sidereal compass. Oceanic Linguistics 54(2).579-588

Linguistic phylogenies support back-migration from Beringia to Asia

Sicoli, Mark and Gary Holton. 2014. Linguistic phylogenies support back-migration from Beringia to Asia. PLoS ONE 9(3): e91722.

Selected Presentations

Mapping language vitality in the post-endangerment era

Sociolinguistics of Language Endangerment
July 22, 2020, Madihol University, Bangkok, Thailand

An initial typology of Papuan Possession

Austronesian and Papuan Languages and Linguistics
June 18, 2020, Oslo, Norway

Do Grammatical Relations Exist? Evidence from Southeast Asia

Southeast Asian Lingusitic Society (Keynote)
May 18, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA

What is DEL and What Is It Good For?

Linguistic Society for America annual conference (Panel Presentation)
January 03, 2020, New Orleans, LA, USA

Documentary Linguistics, Digital Return, and Community-Based Archiving

International Conference on Language Diversity and Preservation of Cultural Heritage (Keynote)
December 17, 2019, Madihol University, Bangkok, Thailand

Elevation and spatial orientation in Alaska. Workshop on Elevation as a Deictic Category

Societas Linguistica Europeae
September 21, 2019, Leipzig, Germany

A typology of spatial orientation systems in the Malayo-Polynesian languages outside Oceanic

Austronesian and Papuan Languages and Linguistics
June 15, 2019, Leiden, Netherlands

Language documentation and conservation in North Maluku

International Conference on Teaching and Learning (Keynote)
November 05, 2018, Universitas Khairun, Ternate, Indonesia

From Community to Archive and Back: Language archives and digital return

Foundation for Endangered Languages annual conference (Keynote)
October 20, 2018, Alcanena, Portugal

Language Documentation

College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature Annual Graduate Student Conference (Keynote)
April 17, 2018, Honolulu, HI, USA

Teaching

• IS 750: Topics in Biocultural Diversity
• LING 630: Field Methods
• LING 640G: Language, Landscape, and Space
• LING 680: Introduction to Language Documentation
• LING 720: Linguistic Typology
• LING 750G: Lexicography
• LING 750G: Grammar Writing
• LING 770: Areal Linguistics

Service

• Member of editorial board, Language Documentation & Conservation
• Member of editorial board, Alaska Journal of Anthropology
• Member, LSA Committee on Endangered Languages and their Preservation