Stefanie Ramos Bierge
Linguistics | Ecology | Education | Community work
I am very passionate about community work because I believe that it can lead to social change. I have had the opportunity to use my skills in various activities where I could see a direct impact.
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My ultimate goal is to keep developing projects that aim for the preservation of cultural and linguistic diversity as well as the creation of social equity.
Activities
I have participated with the University of Nayarit (Mexico) in doing fieldwork and revitalization efforts in Wixárika communities where I documented the language and taught the writing system to some people from the community called 'El Colorín' (Nayarit, Mexico). For this type of work, I helped creating materials to teach the language by using my linguistics knowledge and my teaching experience.
I also have ongoing collaborations with Wixárika communities focused on resource development and capacity building for community language documentation as part of the NEH funded project at the New York Botanical Garden. This collaboration includes workshops on ethnobotany and language documentation, linguistic and ethnobotany landscapes (visible display of language in public spaces), building a community herbarium, and the development of audio-visual material on the YouTube channel “Voces del Gran Nayar”, directed by Wixárika native speaker M.A. Tutupika Carrillo, which promotes awareness of linguistic diversity and endangerment of languages in Nayarit, Mexico.
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I have also been involved in the diffusion of the Wixárika culture and language by giving some radio interviews at “Voces Indígenas” ["Indigenous voices"] RADIO AZTLÁN 550 AM; in working on a database consisting of recordings for community use; training professors of indigenous languages to teach a second language in their communities; as well as the publication of traditional legends from the Wixárika cosmogony.