Rebecca Wood, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology, recently received the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)/National Science Foundation (NSF) Dynamic Languages grant for her proposal titled, “A Language Digital Learning Repository.” A representative from Congressman Crank’s office emailed to extend congratulations to Wood and UCCS on the award and the cutting-edge research.
The nearly $250,000 award aims to develop a centralized, searchable digital platform that offers access to language resources. This platform will include machine-readable infrastructure such as lexicons, grammars and databases, supporting AI development and helping prevent language extinction. Wood, as the Principal Investigator, and her interdisciplinary team will gather and analyze language data to better understand grammatical structures, create educational materials and archive resources for future reference. The project combines linguistic theory and practical methods to create new tools and enhance access to language materials.
The funding announcement for this award was especially exciting because Wood collaborated with Kelly McNear, Ph.D., and Deborah Baness King, Ph.D., from the Office of Research to bring this proposal to life. The supportive environment promoted by UCCS, combined with innovative faculty ideas, is what makes UCCS exceptional.