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Samuel Kayode Akinbo
Samuel Kayode Akinbo
Dr. Samuel Kayode Akinbo is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Toronto. His research primarily focuses on how the structural components of real-world events and entities influence phonological structures. The empirical basis of this exploration mostly comes from phonological alternations that are motivated by iconicity, which is the perceived resemblance between form and meaning. As language-external evidence for iconicity or resemblance-based mapping in general, he also investigates how musical traditions in West Africa map linguistic structures to music (e.g., via talking drum, xylophone, flute, etc.) and vice versa (e.g., vocal imitation of music) for expressive purposes. He explores the implications of these musical and linguistic practices for linguistic theory, particularly the idea that the source of linguistic knowledge and representation is a language-specific cognitive capacity. Given that grammaticalized iconicity and form-meaning relationships in music are underdocumented, a key component of his research is language documentation and description. Thus, his research program is at the intersection of phonology, phonetics, music and language documentation and description, with a specific focus on African languages.
Paulin Djité
Paulin Djité
Dr. Paulin Djité holds degrees in Applied Sociolinguistics (Ph.D. 1985) and Translation/ Interpretation (Graduate Diploma 1984) from Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.). He has forty years of experience in the public and private sectors in the United States, Australia and the Asia-Pacific (China, New Caledonia and Lao PDR) as an academic (Georgetown University, Howard University, the University of Sydney, Western Sydney University, Xinghua University and the National University of Laos) and as a Translator and Conference Interpreter. He was Manager of Translation at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games from 1996 to the Year 2000 and has worked as a Translation/ Interpretation Consultant for Applicant Cities, Candidate Cities and Olympic Games Organising Committees, such as Athens, Bangkok, Beijing, Budapest Glasgow, Istanbul, Krakow, Rio de Janeiro, Salt Lake City and Paris, as well as for a number of specialised departments of the International Olympic Committee (e.g. Olympic Solidarity). He has received several distinctions in this capacity, including the Brazilian Olympic Prize (Rio 2016 Organising Committee), the Certificate of Olympic Merit (IOC) and the Médaille d'Or de la Jeunesse et des Sports (France). Paulin is the author of several books and articles on language and development in Africa, Australia and Asia and Translation and Interpretation in the context of the Olympic Games. He has been awarded the title of Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques for his academic work. Paulin is currently an Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of English at the Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny and a Consultant at the African Development Bank at its Headquarters in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire).
Rose Letsholo-Tafila
Rose Letsholo-Tafila
Dr. Rose LetshoIo-TafiIa is a Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English, University of Botswana. She joined the University of Botswana in 1992. She holds a Master of Letters from the university Of Edinburgh (1995) and a Ph.D in Linguistics (Syntax) (2002) from the university of Michigan (Ann Arbor). The title of her PhD dissertation is Syntactic Domains in Ikalanga. Her research is mainly on the syntax of Ikalanga and Setswana, both spoken in Botswana. She has published extensively on aspects of the syntax of these two languages. Over the past few years, she has extended her research interests to include language documentation, especially of Khoesan languages She has a number of publications based on llGana, a Khoesan language largely spoken in New Xade. In addition, she is currently working on two projects with junior colleagues titled : a) A communicative development inventory of Setswana (with Naledi Kgolo-Lotshwao) and b) The Impact of Parental Involvement in Students’ Reading Achievement in Public Primary Schools in the Southern Part of Botswana: A Preliminary Study (with Goabilwe Ramaeba). Prof. Letsholo-Tafila also conducts social and ethnological based research in the areas of language and gender as well as language attitudes and she has published in these areas as well.
Simanique Moody
Simanique Moody
Dr. Simanique Moody earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics from New York University and is currently an Assistant Professor in the English Department and the Linguistics Program at The City University of New York, Brooklyn College. Prior to working at Brooklyn College, she spent seven years at Leiden University in the Netherlands, where she was a tenured lecturer of Linguistics and International Studies. Dr. Moody specializes in sociolinguistics, contact linguistics, and applied linguistics, and much of her research examines language contact, language variation, and language change in African American English and Atlantic creoles. One of her areas of expertise includes the grammatical and phonological description of African American English and its connection to Gullah Geechee, an endangered English-lexifier creole language spoken along the southeastern coast of the United States. Dr. Moody is also engaged in research to develop and implement pedagogical methods to help students acquire standardized English without devaluing their home language and culture. She has conducted fieldwork on language contact in the United States, Haiti, Guyana, Côte d'Ivoire, and the Netherlands. Her other scholarly interests include language, culture, and identity in the African diaspora. Dr. Moody’s research has been published in Language, The Oxford Handbook of African American Language, and English Today. Outside of academia, she helps increase access to educational opportunities for children in northeastern Haiti through her nonprofit work with Educating the Heart, Inc.
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