CPGC Recognizes Oaxacan Language Activist Janet Chávez Santiago as Fellow
Janet Chávez Santiago, Fellow for Community-based Learning.
Due to distinguished service and leadership collaborating with Associate Professor of Linguistics Dr. Brook Lillehaugen, and significant contribution to students' and faculty members' learning and scholarship, the CPGC is proud to recognize Ms. Janet Chávez Santiago as a Fellow for Community-based Learning.
Janet Chávez Santiago was born in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca Mexico. Ms. Chávez Santiago comes from a family of master weavers and Zapotec speakers. From a young age she has been involved in the weaving tradition and natural dyes.
Ms. Chávez Santiago holds a bachelors degree in Language Education from the Universidad Regional del Sureste in the city of Oaxaca. In 2009 she began conducting research on the Teotitlán del Valle Zapotec language with the objective of designing curricula for teaching this variant as a second language. By 2011 she had created a Zapotec course named “Te ganiun dixza Xigie”.
Since 2012, Ms. Chávez Santiago has been collaborating with Dr. Brook Danielle Lillehaugen in a partnership that has included various workshops related to the Valley Zapotec language and the development of the Teotitlán del Valle Zapotec Talking Dictionary.
Learn more about the collaboration among Ms. Chávez Santiago, Dr. Lillehaugen, and other Zapotec language activists in a podcast interview with Executive Director of the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship, here.
Recognition as a Fellow for Community-based Learning indicates an individual has developed a special, continuing and vital role in relation to the engaged scholarship of Haverford College students and faculty.
