Deborah Waughtal is a 2021-2022 graduate FLAS fellow studying Quechua.

"This fall, I’m beginning my third year of coursework in the Hispanic Linguistics PhD program as a FLAS Fellow, and I’m thrilled to be in my third semester of Quechua. As a GTA in 2019, I had the opportunity to observe a class taught in Quechua by Elvia Andía Grageda. What caught my attention was what students were doing with the language: how they created and narrated a story in Quechua, learned new vocabulary in a reading passage, and genuinely had fun communicating in Quechua. The experience seemed enriching for them, and I caught something contagious in this observation; so in 2020, I enrolled in my first course. I enjoy speaking Quechua and I look forward to traveling to Andean regions of South America in the future. Quechua presents new sounds and a new structure, but it also presents a bridge to experience and learn about a culture with a set of beliefs and practices different from my own.

The study of Quechua ties in with my academic research interests and goals: Language Contact & Change, Spanish in the US, and Linguistic Anthropology. My future career plan is to continue teaching and learning and to conduct research in my field. My future goals include continuing to develop my communication skills in Quechua, using the language with other speakers, and working with speakers to understand more about the social, psychological, and linguistic factors that influence outcomes of contact. This semester, I’m taking a Seminar in Contact Linguistics taught by Dr. Winford in the Linguistics Department. I hope to apply this course--and others I’ve taken in SPPO with each of the professors I’ve had--as I continue the study of contact between speakers of Quechua and Spanish, residing in regions of South America, Spain, and also the US."