Summary
Sandhya Narayanan is a linguistic anthropologist, whose work focuses on the ways that Indigenous and minoritized identities and subjectivities are managed through multilingual practices. She has done fieldwork in Peru, Bolivia and Southern New England. Her previous research focused on the consequences of inter-Indigenous language contact between Quechua and Aymara speakers in the Department of Puno, located in the Southern Peruvian Andes. In addition to tracking the changes in linguistic practices and grammatical structures that are a result of language contact, she places these changes within broader discourses and ideologies around proper Indigenous linguistic praxis, gender differences and identities, and Indigeneity. She is currently working on her first book, which explores the ways that Quechua-Aymara language contact is engendered in Puno. She is also currently engaged in a new project on Southern New England Algonquian (SNEA) language revitalization with the Massachusett tribe, where she is interested in the process, histories and politics around language revitalization and Indigenous recognition in the area.
Research interests
Dr. Narayanan welcomes inquiries from prospective M.A. and Ph.D. students in these related areas:
- Linguistic anthropology
- Language contact and multilingualism
- Language, gender and sexuality
- Language endangerment and revitalization
- Indigeneity
- Andes/Latin America
- Southern New England
Selected publications
- Narayanan, Sandhya Krittika. 2022. “‘Ni Paisana, Ni Jacinta’: Language and the Scaling of Indigenous Femininity in Peru.” Signs and Society 10 (3): 314–33.
- Narayanan, Sandhya Krittika. 2022. “Contact.” Feminist Anthropology 3 (2)"" 220-26.
- Narayanan, Sandhya Krittika. 2022. “Under One Roof: Material Changes and Familial Estrangement in Puno, Peru.” Journal of Material Culture, March.
- Narayanan, Sandhya Krittika. 2018. “Are We One?: Quechua-Aymara Contact and the Challenges of Boundary Maintenance in Puno, Peru.” Language & Communication, 62 (September): 145–55.
Courses taught
- ANTH 281: Introduction to Language
- ANTH 485/685: Language and Culture
- ANTH 709: Graduate Seminar in Linguistic Anthropology
Education
- Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2020
- B.A., Brandeis University, 2010