LAII Students, Nicholas Underwood and Vianne Basulto Participate in Indigenous Language Institute Symposium

February 13, 2026

LAII Students, Nicholas Underwood and Vianne Basulto Participate in Indigenous Language Institute Symposium

In commemoration of International Mother Language Day, the LAII would like to recognize the work of Nicholas Underwood, LAII’s 2025 Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) Field Research Award Recipient and Vianne Basulto, LAII’s 2025-2026 AY Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) recipient. They have conducted research on two Indigenous Amazonian languages, Secoya and Ticuna, and presented their findings at the Indigenous Language Institute Symposium last fall. 
 
Their research is part of a three-year experimental project titled “Addressee Effects in Demonstrative Systems Across Bilingual Communities,” led by Dr. Naomi Shin, from UNM’s Department of Linguistics and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and Dr. Rosa Vallejos-Yopán from UNM’s Department of Linguistics, in collaboration with Amalia Skilton of the University of Edinburgh.  
 
To learn more, read the UNM News article: 
https://news.unm.edu/news/unm-students-showcase-language-revitalization-projects-at-indigenous-language-institute-symposium