Academic Biography

I received my Ph.D. in Linguistics from UCLA in 2004. I had the extraordinary fortune of having Pam Munro and Peter Ladefoged as my mentors. Their guidance has been crucial in my life. Their influence is reflected in my own research interests, Phonetics/Phonology, Typology and American Indian Languages, which could not have been better nurtured.

After my Ph.D, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at UC Berkeley from 2004-2006 with the collaboration and mentorship of Ian Maddieson, the other figure that has greatly influenced my thinking. John Ohala has been also very influential in my research. Larry Hyman has taught me all I know about tone and more.

Later, I was a visiting researcher at the Cognitive Brain Research Unit in Helsinki, investigating neural correlates of linguistic functions, under the direction of Risto Naatanen.

I joined the Center for Research and Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) holding a research position funded by The National Council on Science and Technology (CONACYT). Prior to that, I was at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig, Germany.

I have taught at several institutions. I am grateful to my students from ENAH, U Toronto, Stanford University, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas and Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo, Madrid, The International Max Planck Research School “The Leipzig School of Human Origins”, Germany, Universidad de Sonora, University of Concepcion, Chile, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 3L International Summer School on Language Documentation and Description, DGfS-CNRS Summer School on Linguistic Typology, University of California, Berkeley.