Book Talk: Enacting and Envisioning Decolonial Forces while Sustaining Indigenous Language: Bilingual College Students in the Andes
Yuliana Kenfield
Thursday, November 19, 2026 | 03:00 pm
Zoom
About:
This presentation focuses on Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) with Quechua–Spanish bilingual students at a university in southern Peru who navigate limited institutional opportunities for bilingual practices. Drawing on findings presented in the book Enacting and Envisioning Decolonial Forces while Sustaining Indigenous Language: Bilingual College Students in the Andes, the analysis highlights a participatory photovoice project through which students reflect on the marginalization of Quechua and articulate strategies to sustain and expand its use in academic spaces. The findings foreground collective, grassroots efforts to mobilize Quechua and Quechuañol, challenging monolingual norms and revaluing Indigenous language practices. By positioning participants as co-researchers, this study offers sociolinguistic insight into how language maintenance emerges through community-driven, decolonial action in higher education.
Yuliana Kenfield, an alumna of the University of New Mexico, is a Quechua scholar. She has served as faculty at the University of Texas Permian Basin and Western Oregon University, preparing educators and sociolinguists in research-based methods and social justice–oriented literacy instruction. Her scholarship has received national recognition, including the Distinguished Dissertation Award from the Critical Educators for Social Justice Special Interest Group within the American Educational Research Association. She authored Enacting and Envisioning Decolonial Forces while Sustaining Indigenous Language. Yuliana collaborates with education activists from Southern Peru. Recent examples include co-contributing to the Know Your Rights / Conoce tus Derechos audio in Quechua Qollao and Anachaq Mosqhoyninpi Willakuy, a trilingual Quechua–Spanish–English children’s book.
Notes:
This event is free and open to the public.
