top of page
xne_201804-05_cev_cacada_feminina_arredo

PhD Rutgers University

Xinane Language Documentation Project leader (Museu do Índio & Unesco)

On a hunting trip with the Xinane ladies. Photo: Txuixta, 2018.

About me

I got my Ph.D. at the Rutgers Linguistics program in 2020 and I'm the leader of the Xinane Language Documentation Project (Museu do Índio-RJ, Brazil & UNESCO). My research has always combined Formal Linguistics and Language Documentation.

 

On one end, I'm interested in topics at the interface between Syntax and Semantics, such as switch-reference and its interaction with case and agreement, negative concord (especially in Romance languages), and quantification. On the other, I'm invested in (monolingual) fieldwork methodology, language description, and collaborative work with minority language communities, in both education and language revitalization. 

​

Much of my work is based on data from the Panoan language Yawanawa, which I started studying in 2010. I have been traveling to Acre and working with native speakers ever since, having coordinated a number of Language Documentation projects and organized a book of traditional Yawanawa narratives.

​

Watch a short documentary about my work with the Yawanawa community.

​

Contact

Rutgers Linguistics Department

18 Seminary Place

New Brunswick NJ 08901

​

livia[dot]souza[at]rutgers[dot]edu

The Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences published a piece about my research!

xne_201804-05_cev_elicitacoes (45).JPG

Conducting elicitation session with Hwado at the Xinane village. Photo: Jefferson Lima, 2018.

bottom of page