Curriculum Vitae
Research and Teaching Interests
multimodal anthropology; linguistic anthropology; language endangerment and revitalization; Indigenous environmental knowledge; decolonial and collaborative methods; media; climate change and sustainability; the Amazon and Andes
Academic Positions
2022 - present Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Western Carolina University
2019 - 2022 Visiting Fellow, Center for Humanities & Information, Penn State University
Education
2019 Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Dissertation: “Remediating Endangerment: Radio and the Animation of Memory in the Western Amazon.” Committee: Bruce Mannheim (Co-Chair), Barbra Meek (Co-Chair), Kelly Askew, Judith Irvine, Sarah Thomason, Michael Uzendoski.
2015 M.A. Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
2010 B.A. with Highest Distinction; Latin American and Caribbean Studies (with Highest Honors), Anthropology, Spanish, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
2005 - 2008 Washtenaw Community College, Ann Arbor, MI
Publications
Peer-reviewed publications:
2025 Ennis, Georgia. “Reweaving Language and Lifeways in the Western Amazon.” Language Lives in Unexpected Places, special issue of American Indian Culture and Research Journal, edited by Georgia Ennis and Erin Debenport. 48(1): 113-136.
2025 Ennis, Georgia and Erin Debenport. “Introduction: Language Lives in Unexpected Places.” Introductory editorial to Language Lives in Unexpected Places, special issue of American Indian Culture and Research Journal, edited by Georgia Ennis and Erin Debenport. 48(1): 1-20.
2020 “Linguistic Natures: Method, Media, and Language Reclamation in the Ecuadorian Amazon.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 30 (3): 304–25.
2020 “Affective Technology: Women’s Media Activism in the Ecuadorian Amazon” Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture, 1 (4): 376–93.
2019 “Multimodal Chronotopes: Embodying Ancestral Time on Quichua Morning Radio,” Signs and Society, 7(1):6-36.
2019 K. Grzech, A. Schwarz, and G. Ennis “Divided we stand, unified we fall? The impact of standardisation on oral language varieties: a case study of Amazonian Kichwa.” Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law 7:123-145.
Books
2025 Rainforest Radio: Language Endangerment and Reclamation in the Ecuadorian Amazon (University of Arizona Press)
Book chapters
(2025) Ennis, Georgia, Gissela Yumbo, María Antonia Shiguango, Ofelia Salazar, and Olga Chongo. “Vincularse al bosque: posibilidades y limites de investigación colaborativa y producción comunitaria de medios” In Contraponiendo la modernida, edited by Carolyn Smith-Morris and César Abadía, 81–116. Universidad del Rosario. Forthcoming
2024 Ennis, Georgia, Gissela Yumbo, María Antonia Shiguango, Ofelia Salazar, and Olga Chongo. “Relating to the Forest: Possibilities and Limitations of Collaborative Community Media.” In Countering Modernity: Communal and Cooperative Models from Indigenous Peoples, edited by Carolyn Smith-Morris and César Abadía, 59–84. London: Routledge.
2022 Ennis, Georgia. “Afecto y modalidad en la revalorización lingüistica del kichwa del Alto Napo.” In Oralidades y escrituras kichwas, edited by Fernando Garcés and Armando Muyolema, 121–45. Quito: Abya Yala Press.
Edited volumes
2025 Special series co-editor, American Indian Culture and Research Journal. Special issue “Language Lives in Unexpected Places” (with Dr. Erin Debenport). 48:1.
2020 Special series co-editor, Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture (UC Press). Special issue “Soundwork and Media Activism.”
2020 Shook, Jen, Georgia Ennis, Alex Sayf Cummings, and Josh Shepperd. 2020. “Introduction: Words from the Guest Editors on ‘The Soundwork of Media Activism.’” Resonance 1 (4): 335–39.
2017 Ñukanchi sacha kawsaywa aylluchishkamanda/Relaciones con nuestra selva/Relating to Our Forest [Quichua-Spanish-English language book and DVD], Georgia Ennis ed., with the Association of Kichwa Midwives of Upper Napo (AMUPAKIN), Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture and Patrimony
Encyclopedia articles
2021 “Language Revitalization and Multimodality.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Ed. Mark Aldenderfer.
Book reviews
2022 Review of Remaking Kichwa: Language and Indigenous Pluralism in Amazonian Ecuador. By Michael Wroblewski. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 32, no. 2.
2021 Review of Language and Revolutionary Magic in the Orinoco Delta. By Juan L. Rodriguez. Journal of Sociolinguistics.
2020 Review of Language, Coffee, and Migration on an Andean-Amazonian Fronter. By Nicholas Q. Emlen. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 31, no. 1.
Other writing
2025 “Georgia Ennis on her book, Rainforest Radio,” CaMP Anthropology Blog, Author interview (conducted by Bernard Perley). [Link]
2025 “Field Notes: Rainforest Radio,” University of Arizona Press. [Link]
2023 “Caring for Indigenous Languages in Settler Times.” In “A Sign of Our times: Caring in an Unsettling World,” edited by Magdalena Zegarra Chiappori and Salwa Tareen, American Ethnologist website, 3 August 2023 [Link.]
2023 WASANA/Women’s Forest Foods/Comida selvática de las mujeres, video with AMUPAKIN; YouTube, 5:32 mins. [Link.]
2018 Author interview with Daniel Fisher, The Voice and Its Doubles, CaMP Anthropology Blog. Link.
In Preparation
ms. “Reanimation: A New Approach to the Past in South American Narrative.” Georgia Ennis, Cathleen Allen, Nicholas Emlen, Margarita Huayhua, Bruce Mannheim, Janis Nuckolls.
Fellowships and awards
National Competitions
20205 WFI Research Grant, Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society, Villanova University - “Influencing Indigeneity: Impacts of Social Media in the Ecuadorian Amazon,” with Vincent Russell, co-PI
2023 Honorable Mention, Abya Yala “Convocatoria de Lenguas Indígenas 2022-23” (for Ñukanchi sacha kawsaywa aylluchishkamanda with AMUPAKIN).
2018 Society for Linguistic Anthropology’s Public Outreach and Community Service Award
2018 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies
2016 Ministry of Culture and Patrimony of Ecuador, Narrative Arts grant for trilingual book and DVD with the Association of Kichwa Midwives of Upper Napo (AMUPAKIN)
2015 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Award
2015 National Science Foundation, Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant
2014 Honorable Mention, National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship
2011 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Fellowship, Universidad Técnica del Norte, Ibarra, Ecuador
Other Fellowships and Awards
2025 Hurricane Helene Mitigation Grant Award – “All We Have Is Each Other: Mutual Aid in the Response to Hurricane Helene,” Western Carolina University ($8,995), with Vincent Russell, co-PI
2025 Provost Scholarship Development Award – “Influencing Indigeneity: Possibilities and Limitations of Collaborative Social Media,” Western Carolina University ($14,678), with Vincent Russell, co-PI
2024 Campus Theme Initiative – Community and Belonging, for “Remembering Tali Tsisgwayahi: Past, Present, and Future,” environmental campus mural, Western Carolina University.
2024 Sustainable Campus Initiative, “Brick and Mortar” Project for “Remembering Tali Tsisgwayahi: Past, Present, and Future,” environmental campus mural, Western Carolina University
2018 Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan, declined
2017 Academic Year Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, Quechua
2015 Rackham International Research Award, University of Michigan
2015 Summer Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, Quichua (Ecuador)
2014 Michigan Anthropology Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor
2014 Academic Year Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, Quechua
2014 Summer Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, Quichua (Ecuador)
2014 Tinker Field Research Grant (Ecuador)
2013 Summer Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, Quechua (Peru)
2012 Academic Year Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, Quechua
2011 Outstanding Honors Thesis, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, University of Michigan
2011 Honorable Mention, MLibrary Undergraduate Research Award, University of Michigan
2010 International Institute Individual Fellowship, University of Michigan
Presentations and sections organized
2025 Language, Environment, and Changing Climates: New Approaches to Language Reclamation. Chair and co-organizer with Jacqueline Messing. Session at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, LA.
2025 “Narrative Refusal: Dialogism and Ideological Transformation in Kichwa Verbal Art,” Society for Linguistic Anthropology 2025 Conference, Chicago, IL.
2025* “Discerning Real Amazonian Fakes: The Multivalent Semiotics of Napo Kichwa Media” Unsettling Images, Engaging Fictions Conference, Brown University, Providence, RI.
2024 “Does Kichwa Information Really Want to Be Free?” Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Tampa, FL.
2024 Engaging the Praxis of Language Reclamation. Chair and co-organizer with Joseph Marks. Executive Oral Session at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Tampa, FL.
2023 “Listening Socialization and Language Reclamation in the Western Amazon.” American Anthropological Association/Canadian Anthropology Society, Toronto, Canada; November.
2022* “Unsettling Environmentalism: The Multivalent Semiotics of Napo Kichwa Environmental Media.” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA: November.
2022 “Reanimation: Bringing the Past to Life in South American Narrative.” Two-day digital symposium, Penn State University.
2022 “Framing Reanimation.” Digital Symposium, “Reanimation: Bringing the Past to Life in South American Narrative.” Penn State University, University Park, PA; April.
2022 “Language Lives in Unexpected Places: New Engagements with Indigenous Languages and Media.” Society for Linguistic Anthropology annual meeting. Boulder, CO.
2022 “Language Oppression and Multimodal Reclamation in the Western Amazon.” Society for Linguistic Anthropology meeting. Boulder, CO. April.
2021 “Language Lives in Unexpected Places: New Engagements with Indigenous Languages and Media.” American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Baltimore, MD.
2021 “Intimate Publics: More-than-language reclamation in the Ecuadorian Amazon.” American Anthropological Association Annual meeting, Baltimore, MD; November.
2021 “Engendering Grief and Humor in Upper Napo Kichwa.” European Network for the Study of Andean Languages. University of Tübingen, Germany/Virtual conference; September.
2021 “Learning How to Listen: Amazonian Kichwa Ideologies of Speech and Socialization.” Third International Symposium of Indigenous Languages and Cultures of Latin America. University of Georgia; March.
2020 “Language Lives in Unexpected Places.” Two-day digital symposium. Penn State University.
2020 “Reweaving Worlds: More-than-language reclamation in the Western Amazon.” Digital symposium, “Language Lives in Unexpected Places,” Penn State University, University Park, PA; November
(2020) “Language Sits in Unexpected Places: New Engagements with Indigenous Languages and Practices” Society for Linguistic Anthropology’s annual meetings, Boulder, CO; April (postponed, COVID-19)
(2020) “Re-animating the home on Amazonian Kichwa community radio,” Society for Linguistic Anthropology, Boulder, CO; April (postponed for COVID-19)
2019 “Contrasting Ideologies of Language Revitalization in Upper Napo Kichwa Community Media,” American Anthropological Association/Canadian Anthropology Society joint meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada; November
2019 “Mediated Methods in Revitalization, Linguistic and Otherwise” International Year of Indigenous Languages 2019 Perspectives Conference, Fort Wayne, IN; October
2019 “Modes of Revitalization: Community Media and the Revalorization of Upper Napo Kichwa,” International Year of Indigenous Languages Conference, Purdue, IN; October
2019 “Linguistic Natures and the Revitalization of Upper Napo Kichwa,” Critical Language Workshop: Applied Linguistic and Anthropological, Newcastle University; October
2019 “Contested Ideologies in the Revitalization of Ecuadorian Kichwa,” Michicagoan Graduate Student Conference, University of Michigan; May
2018 "Reanimating Elders in Multimodal Media," American Anthropological Association annual meeting, San Jose, CA; November
2018 “Efectos sociolingüísticos de la estandarización sobre variedades no-estándar: reflexiones acerca del caso del kichwa amazónico,” co-authored with Karolina Grzech and Anne Schwarz, International Congress of Americanists, Salamanca, Spain; July
2018 “Mutimodal Chronotopes: Embodying Ancestral Time on Quichua Radio,” Michicagoan Graduate Student Conference, University of Chicago, Chicago; May
2018 “Singing Sadness: Radio, Empathy, and Mediated Communities of Practice in Napo, Ecuador,” Everyday Practice in the Andes conference, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; April
2018 “Affective technologies: Mediating communities of practice in the Ecuadorian Amazon,” Society for Linguistic Anthropology meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; March
2017 “Endangered Chronotopes: From Practice to Performance at Tea Time,” American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Washington, D.C.; November
2017 “Ruku kawsaymanda: Narrativizing cultural change in the Ecuadorian Amazon” Latin American Studies Association International Congress, Lima, Peru; May
2017 “Knowing through Indigenous Verbal Art: Production, transmission and transformation of local knowledges” Session co-organized for Latin American Studies Association International Congress, Ecuador section sponsored panel, Lima, Peru; May
2017 “Creating Ñucanchic shimi [Our language]” Conference of the European Network for the Study of Andean Languages, Leiden, Netherlands; September
2017 “Flattening Dialogism: Language Revitalization and the Entextualization of Southern Quechua Narrative,” Latin American Studies Association Congress, San Juan, Puerto Rico; May
2014 “Emergent Alignments on Andean Community Radio,” Michicagoan Graduate Student Conference, University of Chicago; May
2014 “Short-Wave Dialogism: Reporting the News on Andean Community Radio,” 4-Field Anthropology Graduate Conference, University of Michigan; March
Teaching experience
Western Carolina University
ANTH 120 - Comparative Cultural Systems (Fall 2022-Spring 2025) instructor of record
ANTH 351 - Introduction to Environmental Anthropology (Fall 2022, Spring 2024) instructor of record
ANTH 350 - Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology (Spring 2023, Spring 2025) instructor of record
ANTH 380 - Ethnographic Research Methods (Fall 2023) instructor of record
ANTH 456 – Cultures of Latin America (Fall 2024) instructor of record
Pennsylvania State University
Sp 2022 ANTH 296 (Ethnographic Research Methods, Independent Study) instructor of record
Sp 2021, 2022 ANTH 197 (Anthropology of Race & Racism) instructor of record
Sp 2020 ANTH 1 (Understanding Humans) instructor of record
University of Michigan
Sp 2018 ANTHRUL 299 (Language and Identity Online) instructor of record
F 2013 ANTHRCUL 101 (Introduction to Anthropology) graduate student instructor
W 2014 ANTHRCUL 101 (Introduction to Anthropology) graduate student instructor
International and other experience
2017, 2019 Andes and Amazon Field School; Napo, Ecuador, teaching assistant
2011 La Universidad Técnica del Norte, Ibarra, Ecuador, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant
2010 Washtenaw Community College, Ann Arbor, MI, academic tutor
Academic service
2026 Interim co-Director, Cherokee and Indigenous Studies, Western Carolina University
2025-present Latino/a Studies Minor, Co-Advisory Committee Member
2025 Innovative Scholarship Committee, Western Carolina University
2024 Reviewer, Society for Linguistic Anthropology 2025 Conference
2023-present Anthropology and Sociology Social Media Committee, Western Carolina University; chair
2023 SUTEP Grant Selection Committee, Western Carolina University
2022-23 Anthropology and Sociology Open House Committee, Western Carolina University
2021-present Editorial board, Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture
2021-23 Nominations Committee, Society for Linguistic Anthropology
2021, 2022 Selection committee, Fulbright Commission of Ecuador, Kichwa Teaching Assistant
2020-22 Indigenous Faculty Staff Alliance, Penn State
2021 Selection committee, Society for Linguistic Anthropology, Undergraduate Essay Prize
2020 Colloquium co-organizer, “Global Indigenous Information,” Center for Humanities and Information, Penn State
2020 Society for Linguistic Anthropology annual meeting abstract review committee
2020 Penn State, Department of Anthropology, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, sub-group on anti-racist teaching resources
2020 Peer reviewer, Rowman & Littlefield Press; W.W. Norton & Company
2019 Selection committee, Society for Linguistic Anthropology Public Outreach and Community Engagement Award
2019 Manuscript reviewer, Signs & Society
2018 Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee, Linguistic Anthropology Graduate Student Representative, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
2018 “Everyday Practice in the Andes,” Colloquium Co-organizer, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
2017 – 2018 Círculo Micaela Bastidas Phuyuqhawa Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop, Student Coordinator, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
2013 – 2015 First-Year Anthropology Graduate Student Mentor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
2013 – 2014 Círculo Micaela Bastidas Phuyuqhawa Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop, Student Coordinator, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
2013 Michicagoan Graduate Student Conference in Linguistic Anthropology, Co-organizer
2013 Michigan Anthropology 4-Field Graduate Student Conference, Co-organizer
2012 – 2015 Michigan Anthropology Graduate Association, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
2012 – 2013 Graduate Student Mentor, Honors Program in Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Professional memberships
American Anthropological Association (AAA);
Society for Linguistic Anthropology (SLA);
Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America (SALSA)
Languages
English (Native)
Spanish (Fluent)
Lowland Ecuadorian Quichua (Advanced)
Southern Peruvian Quechua (Intermediate)