Ep 12: Miroslav Valeš on Fieldwork in the Americas & Spain

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This week’s episode is with Miroslav Valeš, who has a  Ph.D. in Spanish Philology from Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic and is currently Head of the Department of Romance Languages at the Technical University of Liberec, Czech Republic. In this interview, Miroslav discusses his long and varied fieldwork career, including his experiences working with the Lakhota (USA), Shuar (Ecuador) and A Fala (Spain) communities.

Content Warning:

There is some sensitive material discussed in this interview, including traditional practices that some people may find disturbing.

Transcribing an interview (Community-Driven Documentation and Description of A Fala)

Things mentioned in this episode: 

Thank you to everyone who listened, followed and subscribed to Field Notes during our inaugural season (special shoutout to listeners who sent in questions for our Q&A episodes 9 & 10!). Season 2 will be announced on the Field Notes website (here) and on social media (Instagram and Twitter), @lingfieldnotes

Listen here on Podbean, or on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or other podcast apps via RSS. 

Ep 11: Alex Garcia on Monolingual Fieldwork in The Philippines

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This week’s episode is with Alex Garcia (University of Barcelona). Alex works with the Northern Alta Community in the Philippines. In this episode, Alex discusses how he started working with speakers of Nothern Alta, and how he learned Northern Alta in order to conduct monolingual fieldwork. 

After a day of recording, with Marylin Gallego & an Alta family from Dianed village (2017)

Things mentioned in this episode

Listen here on Podbean, or on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or other podcast apps via RSS.

Ep 10: Fieldwork Q&A with Vera Ferreira & Hugo Cardoso (Part 2)

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Today’s episode is part two of our Q&A episode with Vera Ferreira (CIDLeS & ELDP) & Hugo Cardoso (University of Lisbon). In this episode, we discuss questions from listeners such as “How can fieldworkers deal with the often tragic and uncomfortable circumstances in the field?”, “How can we reduce our environmental impact in the field?” and “How to deal with difficult recording situations”. Just a reminder, the responses to these questions are based on our own experiences in the field and do not necessarily reflect best practice (i.e., your mileage may vary). 

Things mentioned in this episode:

Recording a walkabout in Trincomalee guided by Derrick Keil (photo by Jennifer White)

Thank you to our listeners who sent in questions, if you have a question about linguistic fieldwork, you can email it to fieldnotespod@gmail.com

If you would like to hear more about Vera’s fieldwork with the Fala (Spain), Minderico (Portugal) and Bavarian (Germany) communities, you can listen to Field Notes episode two. If you would like to learn more about Hugo’s work with the Diu and Kerala communities (India) and the Portuguese Burgher community (Eastern Sri Lanka), you can listen to episode four.

Listen here on Podbean, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Casual talk with Minderico speakers in the streets of Minde (photo from Vera Ferreira)

Ep 9: Fieldwork Q&A with Vera Ferreira & Hugo Cardoso (Part 1)

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Today’s episode is with Vera Ferreira (CIDLeS & ELDP) & Hugo Cardoso (University of Lisbon). In this episode, I sat down with Hugo and Vera to discuss questions sent in from listeners, such as “How can collected data be shared in a meaningful way with communities”, “What do researchers prioritise during their documentation projects?” We also tried to name the best thing we’ve each eaten in the field (it wasn’t easy).

If you would like to hear more about Vera’s fieldwork with the Fala (Spain), Minderico (Portugal) and Bavarian (Germany) communities, you can listen to Field Notes episode two. If you would like to learn more about Hugo’s work with the Diu and Kerala communities (India) and the Portuguese Burgher community (Eastern Sri Lanka), you can listen to episode four.

Below, some food photos from my fieldwork in Amami:

udon noodles
tereda (sea snails)
tsukemono (pickles), mochi, tempura veggies & green tea during a recording session
keihan rice
iseebi

Ep 8: Lauren Gawne on Funding Fieldwork

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This week’s episode is with Lauren Gawne who does fieldwork in Nepal working with speakers of Yolmo and Syuba. Lauren has experience as both a successful grant applicant and as a grant committee assessor. In this episode, she shares her advice for navigating applying for funding in an overly-competitive and under-resourced environment. One of the essential points Lauren makes is that struggling to find funding doesn’t necessarily reflect on the quality of your work or your project, or your commitment to the community you’re working with. In this episode, Lauren shares how she has funded her work and her advice to researchers looking to apply for fieldwork funding. Also, read the instructions.

This photo is archived at ELAR and can be found here.

Things mentioned in this episode:

This photo is archived at ELAR and can be found here.

List of Funding Opportunities (from listeners):

Ep 7: Community Collaboration for Language Documentation in the Tanzanian Rift Valley with Andrew Harvey

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This episode is with Andrew Harvey, who is a documentary linguist working with speakers of two previously un-documented languages, Ihanzu and Gorwaa (Tanzania). Andrew discusses his research, the seredipitous beginning to his work with the Gorwaa community, and how community collaboration has impacted the documentation and description of Ihanzu and Gorwaa.

Elicitation with Ayi Raheli

Things mentioned in this episode:

Ep 6: Madoka Hammine on Insider Research in the Ryukyus

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This week’s episode is with insider researcher Madoka Hammine, who is a PhD student at University of Lapland in Finland. Madoka works on her heritage language, Yaeyama (Ryukyuan), as both a linguist and a language activist. Her PhD project is entitled: “embracing multilingualism in education”, based on her fieldwork in both in Finland and Miyara village (Ishigaki, Japan). 

Madoka in the field in Miyara village, Ishigaki (Japan). Photo by Akiko Mizuno

Things mentioned in this episode: 

Madoka & her grandma in Ishigaki, Japan