Lia Morgan Siewert

Biography

Morgan Siewert received her PhD in anthropology from The University of Texas at Austin in 2021, with a special focus on innovations in cultural and linguistic revitalization. Her dissertation, Nishnaabemwin, English, and Language Vitality through Stories and Performance in an Anishinaabe Community, focuses on two linguistic communities--a community heritage organization and a community theater--of an Anishinaabe reserve in northern Ontario, where she has worked with consultants since 2012. She looks at differences in how elders and youth relate to their heritage language (Nishnaabemwin, also called Anishinaabemowin) in terms of identity and authority and how these differences may inform pedagogical approaches and learner outcomes. In addition to ongoing research into emergent heritage language revitalization methods, she plans to resume research paused by Covid-19 into archives and Indigenous knowledge repatriation. This archive project is in collaboration with an Anishinaabe genealogist and historian and aims to locate, identify, and catalogue Jesuit missionary records written in varieties of Anishinaabemowin with the goal of returning this knowledge to the community. Dr. Siewert’s interest in pedagogy is not only academic: she is an experienced college instructor who loves teaching anthropology and working with students to develop knowledge and skills they can carry throughout their lives.