Planet Word

I have been involved in various capacities with the planning of Planet Word, an exciting new museum of language in Washington DC that opened in October of 2020.

OMSI Science Communication Fellow

I am a Science Communication Fellow at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in Portland, OR, and regularly participate in their Meet a Scientist and OMSI After Dark events.

Language and Life Project

I worked at the Language and Life Project, housed in the North Carolina State University Linguistics Program, for many years. You can read about some of my experiences doing outreach and engagement in various communities with this group in Wolfram, Reaser, & Vaughn (2008). The many projects I was involved in during that time include: several museum exhibits and documentary films, a dialect awareness education curriculum for 8th graders, and an oral history CD and book for a rural African American community in western North Carolina. Some of these are outlined in more detail below.

Spanish Voices documentary film

At the Language and Life Project, I co-produced a documentary film called Spanish Voices with Danica Cullinan, Walt Wolfram, Neal Hutcheson, and Phillip Carter. A description of the film: Spanish speakers drawn to the southeastern United States over the past couple of decades have had a notable impact on the identity of many urban and rural communities. Spanish Voices reveals some of the social and personal issues that are part of language contact situations worldwide -- and many that are unique to the Southeast. Students and teachers, musicians and dancers, recent immigrants and long-term residents, share their experiences with the difficulty in maintaining a home language, the challenge in learning a new language, and the varieties of both Spanish and English that have become part of their Southern experience.

Freedom's Voice museum exhibit

Freedom's Voice, a multimedia museum exhibit at the Outer Banks History Center in Manteo, NC, explored the African American experience on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, particularly on Roanoke Island, where many current residents reside on the land given to their ancestors when the area was officially made a Freedmen's Colony for slaves freed following the Civil War. Along with Drew Grimes, I was co-responsible for the exhibit's conceptualization, content, design, production and fabrication. The exhibit ran from 2006-2007. Click the thumbnails below for exhibit photos + descriptions.

Celebrating Muzel Bryant museum exhibit

Muzel Bryant was the last residing member of the only African-American family residing on Ocracoke Island, NC since the Civil War until her death in 2008 at age 103. This multimedia museum exhibit at the Ocracoke Preservation Society in Ocracoke Island, NC in the Spring of 2008 celebrated her life. I was responsible for the exhibit's conceptualization, content, design, production and fabrication. Click the thumbnail below for exhibit photos + descriptions.