Curriculum Vitae

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Susan Smythe Kung

Education

PhD in Linguistics, The University of Texas at Austin, 2007
Dissertation: A descriptive grammar of Huehuetla Tepehua

MA in Linguistics, The University of Texas at Austin, 1998
Thesis: Syntactic versus pragmatic word order in Cherokee 

BA in Spanish, Magna Cum Laude, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, 1990

Professional Experience

Archives Manager | Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America | September 2012 – Present

AILLA is a digital repository within LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections at The University of Texas at Austin. Duties include 

  • project management and documentation 
  • website development and maintenance
  • strategic planning for AILLA and LLILAS Benson
  • writing & managing grant-funded projects, creating deliverables, writing and submitting reports
  • writing & managing AILLA’s endowed budget, fundraising
  • managing a staff of 3-6 people (1 full-time employee, 1-2 graduate research assistants, 2-3 paid interns, 1-2 Capstone student projects)
  • developing AILLA collections
  • donor and depositor collaborations & relations
  •  assisting patrons 
  • overseeing digital project management & repository software migration
  • workflow planning
  • representing AILLA in all endeavors in English and Spanish, such as outreach and networking, giving workshops and presentations, and writing publications, press releases, and social media posts.

Academic Editor and Proofreader | Freelance | 2007-2012

Academic editing for disciplines of linguistics, anthropology, sociology, and communications. Specialized in adapting non-native English manuscripts for publication in English-language venues.

Assistant Instructor & Teaching Assistant | University of Texas at Austin | August 1998 – December 2004

Assistant instructors are the instructors of record, responsible for all aspects of course planning and instruction. Teaching assistants assist professors with grading and lecturing. 

  • Language and Prejudice, Department of Linguistics (Asst. Instructor)
  • Spanish 507, Department of Spanish and Portuguese (Asst. Instructor)
  • Language Change and Language Variation, Department of Linguistics (Teaching Asst.)
  • Introduction to Linguistics, Department of Linguistics (Teaching Asst.)
  • Sociolinguistics, Department of Linguistics (Teaching Asst.)

Librarian | Archibald H. Hill Library | May 1997 – August 1998

The Archibald H. Hill Library was a physical library formerly located in the Linguistics Department at the University of Texas at Austin. Created a digital catalog of the physical holdings and maintained the physical card catalog; catalogued new acquisitions (books, journals) in both locations; assisted patrons.

Data Technician | Duke University Medical Center | March 1993 – August 1996

Conducted psychiatric interviews with adolescents and their guardians and coded the collected audio and written data for the Great Smoky Mountains Study, a longitudinal project funded by the National Institute of Health. 

Products & Publications

See the Products & Publications page of this website for a detailed list.

Presentations & Workshops

See the Presentations & Workshops page of this website for a detailed list.

Grants

National Endowment for the Humanities, American Rescue Plan, Sustainable Curation, Preservation, and Online Access for Multilingual Cultural Heritage Collections at the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (ZPA-283989), Co-PI with Patience Epps, $33,459. Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, 2022.

National Endowment for the Humanities, Archiving Significant Collections of Endangered Languages: Two Multilingual Regions of Northwest South America (PD-260978-18), Co-PI with Patience Epps, $227,365. Sept. 1, 2018 to Sept. 30, 2021.

National Science Foundation, Transforming Access and Archiving for Endangered Language Data Through Exploratory Methodologies of Curation (BCS-1653380), Co-PI with Anthony C. Woodbury, $288,985 (Supplement awarded in 2017). Sept. 1, 2016 to Aug. 31, 2020.

National Science Foundation, Developing Standards for Data Citation and Attribution for Reproducible Research in Linguistics (SMA-1447886), Co-PI with Andrea Berez-Kroeker, Gary Holton & Peter Pulsifer, $118,077 (Supplement awarded in 2016). May 1, 2014 – April 30, 2020.

National Science Foundation, Archiving the Terrence Kaufman Collection (BCS-1157867), Co-PI with Anthony C. Woodbury & Patience Epps), $302,627 (Supplements awarded in 2013, 2014, 2016). May 1, 2012 to April 30, 2018.

National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, A descriptive grammar of Huehuetla Tepehua (BCS-0078453), Anthony C. Woodbury, Principal Investigator. Sept. 2, 2000 to Aug. 31, 2001.

Areas of Expertise

  • Grant planning, writing, and management
  • Project planning and management
  • Budget development
  • Strategic planning
  • Data and metadata management and documentation
  • Development of best practices and policy recommendations
  • Development of workshop curricula, training materials, open educational resources 
  • Academic, technical, and informational writing in English and Spanish
  • Public speaking, teaching, and training in English and Spanish
  • Multicultural and international collaboration, outreach, and networking 
  • Patron, donor, and depositor relations
  • Staff hiring, training, and supervision

Certificates & Trainings

  • Creative Commons Certificate for GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums), September-December 2021
  • PUB101, Introduction to open textbook publishing, January-February 2021
  • Creative Commons Certificate for Librarians, June-August 2020
  • Copyright Issues for Digital Archives workshop sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, TX, December 4, 2017.
  • Collaboration for Complex Research: Crowdsourcing in the Humanities, Humanities Intensive Learning and Teaching, UT-Austin, June 5-9, 2017.

Skills

Software
  • Website and content management: WordPress, HTML, Drupal, Islandora, Omeka, AirTable
  • Learning management: Canvas, Teachable, Blackboard
  • Office/Project management: Google Suite, Microsoft Office365, Confluence Wiki, Jira, Trello, Slack, Teams, Box, DropBox
  • Graphic Design: Canva, Visme, Piktochart
  • Audio editing: Audacity, Sound Forge
  • Video editing and animating: Vyond, Camtasia, iMovie, QuickTime
  • Survey: Qualtrics, Google Forms
  • Data cleaning: Open Refine, Oxygen
  • Web 2.0: Google analytics, social media, blogs, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Wikidata
  • Linguistics and Language Documentation: ToolBox, FLEX, Elan
Digitization Technology
  • Analog audio recorders/players: open reel cassette, audio cassette, microcassette, minidisc
  • Analog/digital video recorders/players:, DV, mini DV, Hi8, VHS
  • Scanners: flat bed, overhead, slide
  • Storage media: floppy disks (3.5” & 5.25”), Iomega zip disks, CDs, DVDs, external hard drives, USB drives, SD cards

Foreign Fieldwork & Study Abroad

MesoSpace Project in Huehuetla, Hidalgo, Mexico. NSF BCS-0723694, Jürgen Bohnemeyer, PI. Research on linguistic encoding of spatial and locative reference in Huehuetla Tepehua. June-July 2008, November 2011.

Dissertation Fieldwork on Huehuetla Tepehua in Huehuetla, Hidalgo, Mexico. NSF BCS-0078453 & Fulbright-García Robles Fellowship. Academic affiliations with the Universidad de las Américas Puebla and Colegio de México. Language documentation fieldwork. September 2000-June 2001.

Project for the Documentation of the Languages of Mesoamerica in Catemaco, Veracruz, Mexico. Terrence Kaufman, John Justeson & Roberto Zavala, Directors. Lexical, semantic, and phonological research on Huehuetla Tepehua. Summers 1999, 2000, and 2005.

Undergraduate study abroad in Spain. Attended Spanish classes for foreigners at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Lived with a host family both trips. Summer 1987 and Fall 1989.

Professional Service Activities

Language Archives Leadership

Linguistic Data Interest Group of the Research Data Alliance, founding member, January 2017.

Digital Endangered Languages and Musics Archives Network (DELAMAN), board member 2012-present, President 2017-2019, Award Committee Chair 2020-present. Organized Annual meetings in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Breath of Life Archival Institute, linguist volunteer, Pawnee research group, National Anthropological Archives, Washington, D.C., June 10-24, 2013.

Reviewing

Panelist

  • Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), Recordings at Risk program
  • National Science Foundation (NSF), Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) and Dynamic Language Infrastructure (DLI) programs
  • National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Humanities Collections and Reference Resources (HCRR) Program, Indigenous Studies group

Ad hoc grant reviewer for NSF (Linguistics, DEL, DLI), NEH (HCRR), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, and the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP)

Peer reviewer for the journals Amerindia, International Journal of American Linguistics, Language Documentation & Conservation, Language Dynamics and Change, Tlalocan

Abstract reviewer for the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA), the Conference on the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (CILLA), PARADISEC @100, Symposium about Language and Society – Austin (SALSA), Texas Linguistic Society

Honors, Awards, Fellowships & Scholarships

  • Harold W. Billings Staff Honors Award, University of Texas Libraries, UT-Austin, August 2018
  • Mary R. Haas Book Award, Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas, 2008
  • Award for Excellence in Graduate Research, University Co-operative Society, UT-Austin, 2004
  • University Continuing Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin, 2001-2002
  • Fulbright-García Robles Fellowship, COMEXUS-IIE, Mexico, 2000-2001
  • Pan American Round Tables of Texas, Melba Brunno Dawson Scholarship, 2000-2001
  • University Continuing Tuition Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin, 1999-2000
  • Phi Kappa Phi Academic Honor Society, UT-Austin chapter, 1997-2007
  • Phi Beta Kappa National Senior Honor Society, UNC-Greensboro chapter, 1990
  • Sigma Delta Phi, National Spanish Honor Society, UNC-Greensboro chapter, 1989-1990, President 1990
  • Phi Beta Kappa Sophomore Book Award, UNC-Greensboro, 1988      
  • University Marshals, UNC-Greensboro, 1987-1990  
  • LaRochelle Scholarship in Spanish Language Study, UNC-Greensboro, 1988-1990        
  • Dean’s List, UNC-Greensboro, 1987-1990

Professional Memberships

  • Fulbright Association, Lifetime member
  • Intercontinental American Indigenous Research Association (iAIRA)
  • Linguistic Society of America (LSA)
  • Linguistics Data Interest Group (LDIG) of the Research Data Alliance (RDA)
  • Phi Kappa Phi, Lifetime member
  • Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA)
  • Society of American Archivists (SAA)

Languages

  • English (native)
  • Spanish (fluent)
  • Brazilian Portuguese (advanced beginner)
  • French, German, Italian (beginner)
  • Huehuetla Tepehua, Cherokee, Aleut, Navajo, Onondaga, Kabiyè (beginner/linguistic analysis)

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