curriculum vitae micheldegraff department: mit linguistics and...
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Curriculum Vitae
Michel DeGraff
http://mit.edu/degraffhttp://haiti.mit.edu
Department: MIT Linguistics and Philosophy Date: July 29, 2014
Date of Birth: 26 July 1963
Place of Birth: Port-au-Prince, Haıti
Education
Institution Degree Date
University of Pennsylvania Ph.D. 1992University of Pennsylvania M.Sc. 1988City College of New York B.Sc. 1986
Title of Doctoral Thesis: Creole Grammars and the Acquisition of Syntax:The Case of Haitian Creole
Grants, Fellowships and Honors
Grant from National Science Foundation (NSF) 2013–2017Project: “Kreyol-based Cyberlearning for a New Perspective on the Teaching of STEM in localLanguages” (co-PI: Dr. Vijay Kumar)$999,993 award from three NSF Programs: Linguistics, Cyberlearning and Research on Education& Learning.http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1248066
[One of this project’s recent outcomes, on April 17, 2013, is a landmark agreement between theHaitian State and our NSF-funded MIT-Haiti Initiative toward a (“thinking out of the box”)paradigm shift in order to improve Haiti’s education system. See section on Media Coverage onpage 19.]
Grant from Open Society Foundations 2012–2013Project: “Improving Haiti’s STEM Education through Faculty Training and Curriculum Develop-ment” (co-PI: Dr. Vijay Kumar)$55,518 award.
Grant from National Science Foundation (NSF) 2010–2013Project: “Kreyol-based based and technology-enhanced learning of reading, writing, math, andscience in Haiti.”
$200,000 award from NSF Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (Pro-gram: Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering).http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1049718
Research Fellowship, National Endowment of the Humanities 2002Project: “Mismeasure of the Creole Speaker”
Cooperative Research Fellowship, AT&T Bell Laboratories 1986–1992
Professional Experience
Academic Positions
2003–Present Associate Professor of Linguistics (with Tenure), MIT1999–2003 Associate Professor of Linguistics (without Tenure), MIT1996–1999 Assistant Professor of Linguistics, MIT1993–1996 Assistant Professor of Linguistics, University of Michigan1992–1993 Post-doctoral Fellow, Graduate Center of the City University of New York1984 (September)–1985 (January)
Research Assistant, Research Foundation of the City University of NewYork
Non-academic Positions
2012–2014 Consultant for Friends of Matenwa project Mother Tongue Books fundedby World Vision.(See http://allchildrenreading.org/mother-tongue-books)
2013 Consultant for Haiti’s Ministry of National Education and for ResearchTriangle Institute International on USAid-funded literacy project ToutTimoun Ap Li (“All Children Reading”).
1998–2011 Volunteer interpreter (Haitian Creole / English) for Political Asy-lum/Immigration Representation (PAIR) Project, Boston MA
1996–2000 Consultant for the International Creole Language Workshop at FloridaInternational University
1998 (July) Consultant for students at Haiti’s Faculte de Linguistique Appliquee1995 (August) Consultant at the Creole Language Bureau of Haiti’s State Secretariat for
Literacy1986 (January–August) Technical Staff, AT&T Bell Labs., Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence1985 (Summer) Research Intern, AT&T Bell Labs., Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence1983 (Summer) and1984 (Summer)
Actuarial Intern, The Equitable Life Assurance Society, New York NY.
Seminars, Colloquia, etc.
Invited Seminars
July 2009 “A course to end the course of Creole studies as we know it. . . ” (2 lectures).University of Campinas, Brazil.
July–August 2005 “‘Creolization’ is acquisition” (6 lectures). Summer Institute of the Lin-guistics Society of America, MIT, Cambridge MA.
July 2003 “Against Creole Exceptionalism.” International Workshop in Linguistics,University of the Basque Country, Vitoria.
July 2003 “Creolization is Acquisition” (3 lectures). University of the Basque Coun-try, San Sebastian, Summer Course on “Language Contact: Linguistic andNeurocognitive Aspects”
March 2003 “Creolization is Acquisition” (2 lectures). University of Puerto Rico, RioPiedras.
August 2000 “Morphology in language contact, language change and language creation”(5 lectures). Universidade Federal Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
March 2000 “Theories of Language Contact” (5 lectures). Universidade Federal do Riode Janeiro, Brazil.
August 1995 “Introduction to Generative Syntax with Haitian Creole as principaldatabase” (two-week seminar). Creole Language Bureau of Haiti’s StateSecretariat for Literacy, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Invited Lectures
April 2014 “The MIT-Haiti Initiative: Quality education in Science, Technology, En-gineering & Math for economic development in Haiti.” Haiti STEM PanelDiscussion, Congregational Black Caucus Haiti Task Force, U.S. Congress,Washigton D.C.
April 2014 “Language acquisition research in multi-disciplinary contexts: A discus-sion.” Workshop: Language acquisition research in multi-disciplinary con-texts, Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies, Wassenaar, The Nether-lands.
September 2013 “Some notes on family values (or lack thereof) in Creole Studies.” Seminarson Languages, Literatures and Cultures, State University of New York,Albany NY.
June 2013 “A hitchhiker’s guide to Cognitive Science via Creole studies.” Cogni-tive Science Lectures on Speech and Language, Music, Art, Reasoning andThought, University of Amsterdam.
Februrary 2013 “A null theory of Creole Formation.” Panel at Meeting of American Asso-ciation for the Advancement of Science Annual meeting: Seminar on thebiology and evolution of human language—historical syntax. Boston MA,15 February 2013.
November 2012 “Phylogenetic magic in Creolistics: Language acquisition, feature valuesand family values.” Keynote lecture at Third Meeting on Formal Ap-proaches to Creole Studies III. (Work in collaboration with Trevor Bassand Robert Berwick.) University of Lisbon, November 2012.
November 2012 “Men anpil, chay pa lou: Haitian Creole in quality education for all inHaiti.” Meeting of the Comite International des Etudes Creoles, Mauritius,November 2012.
November 2012 “Creole studies vs. Creole speakers: A dialogue on history, linguistics and(mis)education.” Linguistics Department, University of Massachusetts,Boston.
September 2012 “Haitian Creole: From margin to center.” Conference on Haitian Creole:Myths, Realities and Prospects, Duke University.
May 2012 “Knowing your Haitian students: Knowing yourselves.” Meeting of theMassachusetts Association of Teachers of Students of Speakers of OtherLanguages, Framingham MA.
October 2011 “Ki sa yon akademi kreyol ka pote pou lekol gras a Teknoloji pouEnfomasyon ak Kominikasyon?” (“How can a Creole Academy use In-formation and Communication Technology to help the school system?”)Symposium on the Haitian Creole Academy, State University of Haiti,Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
June 2011 “A cup half-full: Boundary Conditions on ICT-based education.” HaitiICT in Education Summit, Education Innovation and Workforce Develop-ment Initiative, organized by Inter American Development Bank and Haiti,Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
March 2011 “The role of Haitian Creole in the school system of Haiti” Grimes Confer-ence on Rebuilding Haiti, University of Florida.
November 2010 “From bareness to bareness: Some notes on nominal phrases in Gungbe andHaitian Creole” (with Enoch Aboh), Conference on Formal Approaches toCreole Studies II, Centre for General linguistics, Zentrum fur AllgemeineSprachwissenschaft (ZAS), Berlin.
November 2010 “Kreyol for instruction and identity in Haiti” Panel on Language of In-struction and Identity in Haiti and the Haitian Diaspora, Harvard Univer-sity Graduate School of Education.
October 2010 “From bareness to bareness: Some notes on nominal phrases in Gungbe andHaitian Creole” (with Enoch Aboh), Conference on Bantu, Chinese, Ro-mance Nouns and Noun Phrases Network, Leiden University, The Nether-lands.
October 2010 “Kote nou prale? Kreyol in Haiti’s Culture Code” Meeting of the Na-tional Association of Minority Architects (Panel on post-earthquake Haitiorganized by Black Design News Network), Boston MA.
September 2010 “From bareness to bareness: Some notes on nominal phrases in Gungbeand Haitian Creole” (with Enoch Aboh), Conference on Language Contactand Change—Grammatical Structure Encounters the Fluidity of Language,Trondheim, Norway.
May 2010 “Kreyol in History,” Workshop on “Haiti in History,” Harvard Univer-sity, Center for History and Economics & Project on Justice, Welfare andEconomics, Cambridge MA.
February 2010 “The role of linguists and educators in rebuilding Haiti,” Starr Forumon “Rebuilding Haiti: A Panel Discussion with MIT Experts,” Center forInternational Studies, MIT.
February 2010 “Kreyol in the Reconstruction of Haiti,” PechaKucha Night for Haiti (Ar-chitecture for Humanity), MIT.
July 2009 “Language Acquisition in Creolization and, thus, Language Change” 11thDiachronic Generative Syntax Conference, University of Campinas, Brazil.
May 2009 “Some notes on nominal phrases in Haitian Creole and in Gungbe: ATrans-Atlantic Sprachbund perspective” (with Enoch Aboh) Semantics ofUnder-Represented Languages in the Americas, MIT.
March 2009 “Egalite pou tout moun? Equality for all? Some notes on the archeol-ogy and genealogy of Creole languages and Creole studies.” Linguisticsand Latin American and Caribbean Studies “Kreyol Texts and Contexts”Working Group, Duke University
May 2007 “The end of Creole Studies.” 18th International Symposium on Theoretical& Applied Linguistics, Thessaloniki, Greece
November 2006 “Transforming the language (and politics) of Creole Studies.” Distin-guished Scholar Series: “Transforming Language: Bilingualism, LanguageContact and Language Change.” Penn State University.
October 2006 “Creole Exceptionalism & the (mis-)education of the Creole speaker.” In-ternational Symposium on African & Diasporic Languages & Education,Teachers’ College, Columbia University.
March 2006 “A Cartesian-Uniformitarian approach to Creole formation . . . Or Cre-olistics 101 revisited.” Linguistics Colloquium. Wayne State University,Detroit MI.
December 2005 “A Cartesian-Uniformitarian approach to Creole formation.” LinguisticsColloquium Series, Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
July 2005 “‘Creole’’ islands as linguistic (anti-)utopia.” Haitian Creole Summer In-stitute, University of Massachusetts, Boston.
November 2004 “Three centuries of transnational (anti-)utopias in Creole studies.” Con-ference on Transnational Utopias & the Haitian Revolution in Caribbean& Latin American Culture, University of Missouri, Columbia.
July 2004 “Creole studies: A socio-historical overview.” Haitian Creole Summer In-stitute, University of Massachusetts, Boston.
April 2004 “Creole studies as linguistics at the ‘borders’.” Seminar series on “Lan-guage and Borders”, University of Massachusetts, Boston.
April 2004 “Creole Studies: From Slavery to Post-Colonialism.” Fondation MemoireConference: “Haiti, 1804–2004: From Slavery to Globalization”, York Col-lege, New York.
April 2004 “Is Haitian Creole an “Ewe dialect with a French lexicon” . . . or is ita “non-genetic” language abruptly created by “abnormal transmission”?”Keynote address at Annual Conference on African Linguistics, HarvardUniversity, Cambridge MA.
May 2003 “How Creole languages develop.” International Creole Language Work-shop, Florida International University, Miami.
May 2003 “Are Creole languages abnormal?” Haitian Bilingual/ESL Technical As-sistance Center, Long Island University, New York.
April 2003 “Relexification: A re-evaluation.” Workshop A Trans-Atlantic Sprach-bund? The Structural Relationships Between the Gbe Languages of West-Africa and the Surinamese Creole Languages. Netherlands Institute forAdvanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
April 2003 ““Local relexification” vs. “areal grammaticalization”?” Workshop ATrans-Atlantic Sprachbund? The Structural Relationships Between the GbeLanguages of West-Africa and the Surinamese Creole Languages. Nether-lands Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
March 2003 “Against Creole Exceptionalism.” Public lecture, University of PuertoRico, Rio Piedras.
January 2003 “Language Acquisition is ‘Creolization’.” Linguistics Colloquium Series,University of Georgia at Athens.
October 2002 “Language Acquisition is ‘Creolization’.” Linguistics Colloquium Series,University of Chicago.
July 2002 “Against Creole Exceptionalism—linguists’ most dangerous myth.”Haitian Creole Summer Institute, University of Massachusetts, Boston.
April 2002 “Against Creole Exceptionalism—linguists’ most dangerous myth.” Panelon “Demystifying the myths about Creole languages”, Negritude Society,University of Massachusetts, Boston.
July 2001 “Creole speakers and/vs. Creole studies. History, theory, structure anddevelopment.” Haitian Creole Summer Institute, University of Mas-sachusetts, Boston.
June 2001 “The descent of the Creole speaker: A Cartesian critique of ‘neo’-Darwinianlinguistics.” Conference on (Re)Thinking Caribbean Culture, The Univer-sity of the West Indies, Barbados.
May 2001 “The abnormality of ‘abnormal transmission’ theories for Creole genesis:Lessons from morpho-syntax and/in diachrony.” Linguistics ColloquiumSeries, The Ohio State University.
April 2001 “On the status of ‘abnormal transmission’ in Creole genesis: A view frommorpho-syntax and/in diachrony.” Linguistics Colloquium Series, TheUniversity of Rochester, NY.
April 2001 “The mismeasure of the Creole speaker.” Frederick Douglass Institute forAfrican and African-American Studies, The University of Rochester.
April 2001 “On the theoretical status of (non-)‘genetic’ diachronic processes: A gen-erative perspective.” National Endowment for the Humanities symposium“Towards a unified framework in developmental linguistics”, University ofTulsa.
February 2001 “Neo-Darwinian linguistics and its (mis)practice in Creole studies.”Haitian Scientific Society, Boston MA.
January 2001 “On neo-Darwinian linguistics: The creolist as myth-maker.” LinguisticsColloquium Series, Boston University.
December 2000 “Dualism in linguistics and beyond: Darwin and Descartes travel to ‘Cre-ole’ land.” Linguistics Colloquium Series, University of Maryland, CollegePark.
November 2000 “On the linguistics-ideology interface: Creole studies as case study.” Lin-guistics Colloquium Series, Cornell University.
November 2000 “On the morphology-syntax interface in language creation: Is creolizationa sui generis (‘abnormal’) diachronic process?” Cornell University, Lin-guistics Department.
October 2000 “Creole morphology and the morphology of an ideology.” Guest lecturein Seminar on Language and Politics, Program in Applied Linguistics.University of Massachusetts, Boston.
September 2000 “Imperialism and Creole studies—from 1665 to 2001.” Conference on“Haiti: Exploding the Myths”, Bates College, Lewiston ME.
March 2000 “From Past Imperfect to Future Perfect: Creole Studies and the(mis-)education of the Creole Speaker.” Keynote lecture, Fifth Interna-tional Creole Workshop, Florida International University, Miami.
March 2000 “Where do words come from? Descartes and Saussure travel to ‘Creole-land’.” Barbara Gordon Lecture, Florida International University, Miami.
January 2000 “Do Creole speakers represent a biologically-definable class?” Language inSociety Workshop, University of Chicago.
September 1999 “Morphology in Creole genesis: A 60-minute prolegomenon.” LinguisticsColloquium Series, Yale University.
April 1999 “Haitian Creole: Yesterday . . . Today . . . Tomorrow . . . ” Haitian Society,University of Massachusetts, Boston.
April 1999 “Haitian Creole: Yesterday . . . Today . . . Tomorrow . . . ” Haitian StudentOrganization, State University of New York, Stony Brook.
December 1998 “Haitian Creole: Internal and external ‘standards’.” Capeverdean CreoleInstitute, Symposium on Unified Alphabet for the Writing of CapeverdeanCreole, Boston MA.
December 1998 “Morphological features in language creation and language change.” Lin-guistics Colloquium Series, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
November 1998 “Creole in/and mind: Haitian Creole and linguistic theory.” Guest lec-ture at continuing-education course on “Creole languages in education”,University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Boston Public Schools.
October 1998 “Ki sa teyori sentaks montre nou sou grame kreyol? [Contributions of syn-tactic theory to descriptions of Haitian Creole].” Haitian Studies Associa-tion, Panel on “Haitian Creole: From Theory to Practice”, Port-au-Prince,Haiti.
April 1998 “Haitian Creole grammar: Lessons for the mind.” Educators’ Round-table,Haitian Bilingual/E.S.L. Technical Assistance Center, City College of NewYork.
March 1998 “Whence Haitian Creole grammar?” International Creole Language Work-shop, Florida International University, Miami.
March 1998 “Functional categories in language creation and change.” Linguistics Col-loquium Series, Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (German Centerfor General Linguistics), Berlin, Germany,
April 1997 “Creolization and linguistic theory: Case studies in Haitian Creole syntax.”Linguistics Colloquium Series, Boston University,
March 1997 “Creoles in/and mind.” International Creole Language Workshop, FloridaInternational University, Miami.
March 1996 “Aspects of Haitian Creole morphology and syntax.” International CreoleLanguage Workshop, Florida International University, Miami.
December 1995 “On internal factors of creolization: Case studies in Haitian Creole syntax.”Chicago Linguistic Society and Workshop on Language in Society.
February 1995 “How to be without BE? Haitian Creole vs. French.” Meeting of the Amer-ican Association for the Advancement of Science. Session title: Structuresof Human Language: Some Batons for Cognitive Science and Neuroscience,Atlanta GA,
November 1994 “Notes on the grammar of Haitian Creole.” International Creole LanguageWorkshop, Florida International University, Miami.
June 1994 “The morphology-syntax interface in creolization (and beyond).” ColloqueMorphologie et syntaxe des langues creoles, Universite de Provence, Aix-en-Provence.
May 1994 “The morphology-syntax interface in creolization (and beyond).” Interna-tional Linguistic Association, New York NY.
March 1994 “Predicate-movement, quantification, events and properties.” LinguisticsColloquium Series, MIT.
February 1994 “Predicate-movement, quantification, events and properties.” LinguisticsColloquium Series, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
April 1993 “Syntax/semantics of predicate movement in Haitian Creole.” Sixth Niger-Congo Syntax and Semantics Workshop, Boston University.
April 1993 “On adjectives and thematic relations.” Linguistics Colloquium Series,New York University.
October 1992 “A riddle on negation in Haitian Creole.” Linguistics Colloquium Series,University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
October 1992 “An expletive pro-form for Haitian Creole non-verbal predicates.” SyntaxLunch Series, Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
October 1992 “French pas vs. Haitian Creole pa: from Spec to Head.” Linguistics Col-loquium Series, Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
September 1992 “A riddle on negation in Haitian Creole.” Washington Linguistics Society,Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
December 1990 “Creole languages and parameter setting: A case study using Haitian Cre-ole and the pro-drop parameter.” Workshop on Creole Languages andLanguage Acquisition, RijksUniversiteit Leiden, The Netherlands.
Refereed Conference Presentations
July 2013 “Computational phylogenetics, Creole languages and family values.” In-ternational Congress of Linguists (with Trevor Bass & Robert Berwick),July 21-27, 2013, Geneva.
June 2013 “’Many hands make the load lighter’: Haitian Creole and technology-enhanced active learning toward quality education for all in Haiti.” SixthConference of Learning International Networks Consortium, June 16th—19th, 2013, MIT.
August 2003 “‘Creolization’ is acquisition. Meeting of the Society for Pidgin and CreoleLinguistics, University of Hawai’i, Honolulu
June 2001 “‘Neo’-Darwinian creolistics: A short debugging guide. Meeting of the So-ciety for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
January 2001 “Against Creole genesis as ‘abnormal transmission’.” Annual Meeting ofthe Linguistics Society of America, Washington D.C.
October 2000 “Is Haitian Creole (really) ‘fit’ for education? The creolist as myth-maker.”Annual Meeting of the Haitian Studies Association, West Palm Beach FL.
August 2000 “From (neo-)colonial to millennial creolistics? Creole morphology and themorphology of an ideology.” Biennial Meeting of the Society for CaribbeanLinguistics, Kingston, Jamaica.
March 2000 “Creole morphology and the morphology of an ideology.” 31st AnnualConference on African Linguistics, Boston University.
January 2000 “On prototypes and stereotypes: Haitian Creole as ‘regular’ language.”Meeting of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (held jointly withthe LSA), Chicago IL.
June 1999 “Morphology in Creole genesis: A 20-minute prolegomenon.” 9eme Col-loque International des Etudes Creoles, Aix-en-Provence, France.
January 1999 “The data base of recent writings on Haitian Creole: Scientific and sociolog-ical implications.” Meeting of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics(held jointly with the LSA), Los Angeles, CA.
August 1998 “Expanding the theoretical and empirical horizons of Creole-genesis re-search.” Biennial Meeting of the Society for for Caribbean Linguistics,St. Lucia.
March 1998 “Functional categories in language creation and change.” DeutscheGesellschaft fur Sprachwissenschaft (German Society for General Linguis-tics), Halle/Saale, Germany.
January 1998 “On children and/vs. adults in pidginization and creolization: Time ma-chines and other expediments.” Meeting of the Society for Pidgin andCreole Linguistics (held jointly with the LSA), New York NY.
October 1997 “Haitian Creole morphosyntax and studies of the (speaking) mind.” An-nual Meeting of the Haitian Studies Association, Detroit MI.
June 1997 “Creolization and parameter-(re)setting: Lessons from Haitian Creole mor-phosyntax, language change and Sign language.” Meeting of the Societyfor Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, University of Westminster, London U.K.
June 1997 “Pronominal copulas as resumptive nominals.” Second Celtic LinguisticsConference, University College Dublin, Ireland.
March 1997 “Non-verbal predication in Haitian Creole and in Irish.” 16th Annual Meet-ing of West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, University of Wash-ington, Seattle WA.
February 1997 “Non-verbal predication and trace spell-outs.” 27th Annual LinguisticSymposium on Romance Languages, University of California at Irvine, CA.
August 1996 “A comparison of serial verb constructions in Cape Verdean and otherCreoles” (with John Holm et al). El Segundo Coloquio Internacional deLenguas Criollas de Base Espanola y Portuguesa, Ibero-AmerikanischesInstitut Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Germany.
January 1996 “The Creole verb: A comparative study of stativity and tense reference”(with John Holm et al). Meeting of the Society for Pidgin and CreoleLinguistics (in conjunction with LSA), San Diego CA.
April 1995 “Copula patterns in Atlantic and non-Atlantic Creoles” (with John Holmet al). Conference on Creole Cultures in Latin America and the Caribbean,University of Delaware.
January 1995 “A reassessment of Creole copula patterns” (with John Holm et al). Meet-ing of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (in conjunction withLSA), New Orleans LA.
August 1994 “Syntactic effects of morphological change in creolization (and diachrony).”Meeting of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (in conjunctionwith the Society for Caribbean Linguistics), Georgetown, Guyana.
August 1994 “A comparison of key aspects of the syntax of twelve Creoles (with JohnHolm et al).” Meeting of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics(in conjunction with the Society for Caribbean Linguistics), Georgetown,Guyana.
June 1994 “BE or no BE? French vs. Haitian Creole.” Langues et Grammaire I,Universite de Paris VIII, France.
May 1994 “The morphology-syntax interface in creolization (and diachrony).” Con-ference of the Formal Linguistics Society of Mid-America, Urbana-Champaign IL.
April 1994 “To move or not to move? Placement of verbs and object pronouns inHaitian Creole and in French.” 30th Meeting of the Chicago LinguisticSociety.
January 1994 “On Haitian Creole’s ‘very strict’ adjacency principle” (with Yves Dejean).Meeting of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (in conjunctionwith LSA), Boston MA.
October 1993 “On adjectives and thematic relations” (with Deborah Mandelbaum).Meeting of the Michigan Linguistics Society, Wayne State University, De-troit MI.
June 1993 “On the event role of non-verbal predicates.” Meeting of the Society forPidgin and Creole Linguistics, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
June 1993 “Towards an Atlantic Creole typology (with John Holm et al).” Meetingof the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, University of Amsterdam,The Netherlands.
April 1993 “Why is my old friend not old?” (with Deborah Mandelbaum). 29thMeeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society.
January 1993 “A resumptive non-verbal pro-predicate in Haitian Creole.” Meeting of theSociety for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (in conjunction with LSA), LosAngeles CA.
November 1993 “Una comparacao da sintaxe de nove lınguas crioulas” (with John Holm etal). Coloquio sobre os Crioulos Portugueses: Estructuras Linguısticas e oseu Patrimonio Socio-Cultural, Universidade Internacional de Figueira daFoz, Portugual.
December 1992 “French pas vs. Haitian Creole pa: from Spec to Head.” 6th Symposium onRomance Languages and Linguistics, University of Utrecht, The Nether-lands.
August 1992 “Negation in Haitian Creole: ‘Pa’ pa ‘Pas’ .” Meeting of the Society ofCaribbean Linguistics, Barbados.
April 1992 “On the structure of small clauses and on Creole genesis: Evidence fromHaitian Creole.” Generative Linguists of the Old World (GLOW) Work-shop on African and Languages, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal.
February 1992 “Predication in Haitian Creole: Se vs. French C’est .” 22nd Annual Lin-guistic Symposium on Romance Languages, University of Texas at El Pasoand Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez in Mexico.
January 1992 “The syntax of predication in Haitian Creole.” Meeting of the Society forPidgin and Creole Linguistics (in conjunction with LSA), Philadelphia PA.
October 1991 “The syntax of predication in Haitian Creole.” 22nd Annual Meeting ofthe North-Eastern Linguistics Society, University of Delaware.
January 1991 “Is Haitian Creole pro-drop?” Meeting of the Society for Pidgin and CreoleLinguistics. (in conjunction with LSA), Chicago, Illinois.
Fields of Interest
Linguistic theory, syntax and morphologyThe relationship between (models of) language acquisition and language change/creationThe relationship between linguistics and ideology in the history of Creole studies and in the educa-tion of Creole speakersKreyol-based and technology-enhanced education in Haiti.
Professional Organizations and Service
Boards of Journals and Professional Organizations
2012–Present Representative of the Linguistic Society of America to the Science andHuman Rights coalition at the American Association for the Advancementof the Sciences
2011–Present Member of the scientific committee to help establish Haiti’s CreoleAcademy
2005–Present Member of Editorial Board for Language Learning and Development2000–Present Member of Editorial Board for Journal of Haitian Studies1999–Present Member of Comite International des Etudes Creoles1998–Present Member of Associate Editorial Board for Linguistic Inquiry
1996–2002 Member of Editorial Board for GLOT International (Monthly Magazinefor Linguists)
2000–2007 Member of Editorial Board for The Linguistic Variation Yearbook Project(John Benjamins Publishing Company)
2000–2004 Member of Executive Board for Society for Caribbean Linguistics2000–2004 Member of the Board for Haitian Studies Association2000–2002 Chairman of the Board of Advisors for Mason Integrated Technologies Ltd,1994–2000 Member of Executive Committee for the Society for Pidgin and Creole
Linguistics1998–2001 Member of Editorial Board for Carrier Pidgin1997–1999 Member of the Committee on Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics (for the Lin-
guistic Society of America)1994–1999 Member of Editorial Advisory Committee for the Journal of Pidgin and
Creole Languages
Professional Organizations
Member of: Linguistic Society of America, Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics,Comite International des Etudes Creoles, Society for Caribbean Linguis-tics, Haitian Studies Association
Service to Journals and Funding Agencies
Anonymous reviews for: Anthropological Linguistics, Benjamin-Cummings Publishing Co., Black-well Publishers, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, Language, Lan-guage and Linguistic Compass, Language Policy, Linguistic Inquiry, MITPress, National Science Foundation, Natural Language and Linguistic The-ory, The Linguistic Review.
MIT Activities and Committees
Miscellaneous teaching- and research-related efforts at MIT
2007–present: I have been part of a group of seven professors—from History, Linguistics,Literature, Music & Theater Arts, Writing & Humanistic Studies—whoinitiated the creation of the “big idea” interdisciplinary d’Arbeloff course“Black Matters” course, an interdisciplinary introduction to Black Studies.
Spring 2010 With Professors Dale Joachim (visiting) and Barry Vercoe of the MediaLab, I helped create a new course in response to the January 2010 earth-quake in Haiti. This course was titled “New Media Projects For Haiti”and it included a one-week field trip to Haiti in April 2010 when studentsimplemented their “New Media Projects” in situ.(See http://web.mit.edu/fnl/volume/224/kochan.html)
Fall 2009 With Ken Wexler (Linguistics and Brain & Cognitive Science), I co-taughta new seminar “Language acquisition, variation and change.” The purposeof the seminar was to discuss recent approaches to the study of languageacquisition, language variation and language change, toward providing atheoretically constructive framework for the connection among the corre-sponding empirical domains.
Spring 2009 I was one of the three professors teaching the first installment of thed’Arbeloff “Black Matters” course—with Professors Helen Elaine Lee(Writing & Humanistic Studies) and Erica James (Anthropology). Thisfirst installment of “Black Matters” was subtitled “Power and the BlackExperience: Identity, Culture, Subjugation and Resistance”
Spring 2007 I created a new undergraduate course: “Creole languages and Caribbeanidentities” (24.908). This course explores the concept ‘creolization’ fromcognitive, historical and comparative perspectives, and it examines vari-ous hypotheses about the formation of Creole languages. Also central tothe course are the non-linguistic senses of the notion ‘creolization’ for ex-ample, the historical and socio-cultural ramifications of ethnic contact inthe Caribbean—through religion, music, literature, etc. The course alsoaddresses ‘Caribbean identities’ by examining Caribbean Creole speakers’beliefs and attitudes toward their respective Creole language and towardthe various sources of influences on their linguistic and ethnic make-up(African, European, Asian, etc.)
Participation at: Linguistics Colloquium Series, “Ling Lunch” Meetings, Various Seminarsin Linguistics, Guest Lectures (in courses and lecture series offered byProfessors Isabelle de Courtivron, Suzanne Flynn, Norvin Richards, EmmaTeng, Ken Wexler, etc.)
MIT-wide and global research- and service-related efforts
MIT-Haiti Initiative: I have been collaborating with, among others, Dr. Vijay Kumar (Directorof MIT’s Office for Educational Innovation & Technology), Professors Tom Kochan (formerChair of the Faculty), Philip Khoury (Associate Provost) and Chris Kaiser (Provost) on thedevelopment of MIT’s long-term initiatives in Haiti.
From 2010 onward, such efforts have included my conceptualization and implementation,in collaboration with my co-PI Dr. Vijay Kumar (Director of MIT’s Office of EducationalTechnology and Innovation; Senior Strategic Advisor for MIT’s Office of Digital Learning) ofan MIT-Haiti Initiative for the development, evaluation and dissemination of Kreyol-based andtechnology-enhanced resources for active-learning of STEM at universities and high-schoolsin Haiti.
For more information on this MIT-Haiti initiative, see http://haiti.mit.edu andhttp://mit.edu/degraff under the section “Linguistics and education in Haiti” (also see sectionon Media Coverage on page 19)
Coordinator of Linguistics visiting-student and visiting-scholar programs, Fall 2008–Spring 2010
Committee on Nominations (this committee nominates Officers of the Faculty and candidates forthe elected membership of the Standing Faculty Committees), Fall 2006–July 2009
Committee on Campus Race Relations (this committee is “charged with fostering better relationsamong the races of people at MIT and helping the community realize the benefits of its culturaland racial diversity”), Fall 2006–Fall 2008
Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Undergraduate advisor, 1997–2001
Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Transfer-credit examiner, 1997–2001
Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Committee for the restructuring of the “Language andMind” program within the undergraduate Philosophy major and for designing a curriculumfor the undergraduate major in Linguistics, 1997–1998
Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Independent Activities Period (IAP) Coordinator, 1997and 1998
Published Materials
Edited Volume
1999 (1st ed., hardback)2001 (2nd ed., paperback)
Language Creation and Language Change: Creolization, Diachrony andDevelopment (573 pages). Cambridge MA: MIT Press (Series in Learn-ing, Development and Change)
Articles in Refereed Journals
2009 “Language Acquisition in Creolization and, thus, Language Change:Some Cartesian-Uniformitarian boundary conditions.” Language andLinguistic Compass, 3/4: 888–971.
2005 “Linguists’ most dangerous myth. The fallacy of Creole Exceptional-ism.” Language in Society 34(4):533–591.
2005 “Do Creole languages constitute an exceptional typological class?” Re-vue francaise de linguistique appliquee 10(1):11–24.
2005 “Creole Exceptionalism and accidents of history” (with Don Walicek)Sargasso: A Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language and CultureSpecial Issue: Creolistics and Caribbean Languages, 1–34.
2004 “Against Creole Exceptionalism (redux).” Language 80(4):834–839.
2003 “Against Creole Exceptionalism.” Language 79(2):391–410.
2002 “Relexification: A re-evaluation.” Anthropological Linguistics44(4):321–414.
2001 “On the origin of Creoles: A Cartesian critique of Neo-Darwinian lin-guistics.” Linguistic Typology, 5(2/3):213–310.
2000 “A propos des pronoms objets dans le creole d’Haıti: Regards croisesde la morphologie et de la diachronie.” Langages, 138:89–113.
1999 “Empirical quicksand: Probing two recent articles on Haitian Creole.”Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 14(2): 1–12.
1996 “U[niversal] G[rammar] and [language] acquisition in pidginization andcreolization” (Commentary). Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 19(4):723–724.
1994 “The morphology-syntax interface in creolization (and diachrony).”Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 24(2), 115–132.
1994 “Relative Clauses in Atlantic and non-Atlantic Creoles” (with JohnHolm et al). Papia 3(2):70–87
1993 “A riddle on negation in Haitian.” Probus 5(1/2):63–93.
Chapters in Books
2011 “Creoles.” In Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences,Patrick Colm Hogan, ed., Cambridge University Press, 233–236.
2009 “Creole Exceptionalism and the (mis)education of the Creole speaker.”In The Languages of Africa and the Diaspora: Educating for LanguageAwareness, Jo-Anne Kleifgen and George Bond, eds., Multilingual Mat-ters, 124–144.
2007 “Haitian Creole.” In Comparative Creole Syntax: Parallel Outlines of18 Creole Grammars, John A. Holm and Peter L. Patrick, eds., London:Battlebridge Publications (Westminster Creolistics Series, 7), 101–126.
2005 “Word order and morphology in ‘creolization’ and beyond.” In The Ox-ford Handbook of Comparative Syntax, Guglielmo Cinque and RichardKayne, eds., New York: Oxford University Press (Oxford Studies inComparative Syntax), 293–372.
2001 “Morphology in Creole genesis: Linguistics and ideology.” In Ken Hale:A Life in Language, Michael Kenstowicz, ed., Cambridge MA: MITPress, 53–121.
1999 “Creolization, language change and language acquisition: A prole-gomenon.” In Language Creation and Language Change: Creolization,Diachrony and Development, Michel DeGraff, ed., Cambridge MA: MITPress, 1–46.
1999 “Creolization, language change and language acquisition: An epilogue.”In Language Creation and Language Change: Creolization, Diachronyand Development, Michel DeGraff, ed., Cambridge MA: MIT Press,473–543.
1999 “Parameter-setting in acquisition and through creolization and languagechange.” In The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences, Rob Wil-son and Frank Keil, eds., Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 624–627.
1999 “A comparison of serial verb constructions in Cape Verdean and otherCreoles” (with John Holm et al). In El Segundo Coloquio Internacionalde Lenguas Criollas de Base Espanola y Portuguesa, K. Zimmerman,ed., Frankfurt: Vervuert, 297–319.
1999 “Copula patterns in Atlantic and non-Atlantic Creoles” (with JohnHolm et al). In Creole Genesis, Attitudes and Discourse: Studies cel-ebrating Charlene J. Sato, John Rickford and Suzanne Romaine, eds.,Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 97–199.
1997 “Passive-like constructions in English-based and other Creoles” (withJohn Holm et al). In Englishes around the World: Studies in Honourof Manfred Gorlach (volume 1), Edgar W. Schneider, ed., Amsterdam:John Benjamins Publishing Company, 71–86.
1997 “Verb syntax in creolization (and beyond).” In The New ComparativeSyntax, Liliane Haegeman, ed., New York: Longman, 64–94.
1996 “Creole languages and parameter setting: A case study using HaitianCreole and the pro-drop parameter.” In Creole Languages and LanguageAcquisition, Herman Wekker, ed., Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 65–105.
1995 “On certain differences between Haitian and French predicative con-structions.” In Contemporary Research in Romance Linguistics, JonAmastae, Grant Goodall, Mario Montalbetti and Marianne Phinney,eds., Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 237–256.
1993 “Is Haitian Creole a pro-drop language?” In Atlantic Meets Pacific: AGlobal View of Pidginization and Creolization, Francis Byrne and JohnHolm, eds., Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 71–90.
Papers in Conference Proceedings
2013 “Men anpil, chay pa lou : An nou sevi ak lang kreyol la pou bon-jan edikasyon ak rechech ann Ayiti.” In Akademi kreyol ayisyen: Kipwoblem? Ki avantaj? Ki defi? Ki avni? Ak kolok entenasyonal souAkademi Kreyol Ayisyen an, 26—29 oktob 2011, Renauld Govain &Komite pou tabli Akademi Kreyol Ayisyen, eds., Editions de l’Universited’Haıti, 133–166.
1998 “Nominal Predication in Haitian and in Irish.” In Proceedings of the16th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, Curtis et al, eds.,Stanford CA: Center for the Study of Language and Information, 113–128.
1994 “To move or not to move? Placement of verbs and object pronouns inHaitian Creole and in French.” In Papers from the 30th Meeting of theChicago Linguistic Society , Beals et al, eds., 141–155.
1993 “Why is my old friend not old?” (with Deborah Mandelbaum). InPapers from the 29th Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society , Bealset al, eds., 121–136.
1992 “The syntax of predication in Haitian.” In Proceedings of the 22ndMeeting of the North-Eastern Linguistics Society, Kimberly Broderick,ed., University of Massachusetts at Amherst: Graduate Linguistics Stu-dents Association, 103–117.
Review Essays
1996 Review article on Temps et Aspects en Creole Seychellois: Valeurs etInterferences by Susanne Michaelis (Hamburg: Helmust Buske Verlag,1993). Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 11(1):121–137.
1995 “Kids, Creoles and Universal Grammar” (Review of The Acquisitionof Mauritian Creole, by Dany Adone, Amsterdam: John BenjaminsPublishing Company, 1994). GLOT International 1(3):18–20.
1994 Review of The Clausal Determiners of Haitian and Fon (Travaux deRecherche sur le Creole Haıtien, no. 8, by Claire Lefebvre, Universitedu Quebec a Montreal, 1992). Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages9(2):370–376,
1994 Review of Word Order and Possession in Relexification (Travaux deRecherche sur le Creole Haıtien, no. 10, edited by Claire Lefebvre, Uni-versite du Quebec a Montreal, 1992). Journal of Pidgin and CreoleLanguages 9(2), 376–384.
Other Publications
2013 “MIT-Haiti Initiative uses Haitian Creole to make learning truly active,constructive and interactive.” In Educational Technolology Debate: Ex-ploring ICT and Learning in Developing Countries , July 2013https://edutechdebate.org/cultural-heritage-and-role-of-education/mit-haiti-
initiative-uses-haitian-creole-to-make-learning-truly-active-constructive-and-
interactive/
2013 “Go, Haiti, Go!—Ayiti, ann avan!” Video online at http://haiti.mit.edu,2013http://haiti.mit.edu/2013/07/10/go-haiti-go/
2013 “Ayiti Pare—Haiti is ready” Video online at http://haiti.mit.edu, 2013http://haiti.mit.edu/2013/04/23/ayiti-pare-haiti-is-ready
2011 “MIT’s Michel DeGraff on Expanding Access to Education in Haiti”(Online Interview) Education Portal , September 1, 2011http://education-portal.com/articles/Expanding Access to Education
Professor Michel DeGraff Talks About His Work for Haiti at MIT.html
2011 “Should Haiti’s kids learn in Creole rather than French?” Interview onBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), August 2011http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14588237
2011 “Our word is our bond” (Online Interview) Voices from Haiti , August2011http://www.voicesfromhaiti.com/inner-views/michel-degraff-mit-linguistics-
professor-our-word-is-our-bond/
2011 “Se pawol nou ki mare nou ansanm” (Online Interview—Kreyol versionof “Our word is our bond”) Voices from Haiti , August 2011http://www.voicesfromhaiti.com/kreyol/professor-michel-degraff-se-pawol-nou-ki-
mare-nou-ansanm
2010 “Barye lang ann Ayiti: Kreyol se lang peyi a; se pou sa fok lekol fet ankreyol” Le Nouvelliste, Port-au-Prince, Haıti, August 30, 2010http://www.lenouvelliste.com/article4.php?newsid=82891
2010 “Language barrier: Creole is the language of Haiti, and the educationsystem needs to reflect that” Boston Globe, Opinion Section, July 16,2010http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial opinion/oped/articles/2010/06/16/
language barrier in haiti/
1995 “Predicate-movement, quantification, events and properties.” Niger-Congo Syntax and Semantics 6, Victor Manfredi and Karl Reynolds,eds., Boston University African Studies Center, 69–82.
1994 “Predicate-movement, quantification, events and properties.” In Focusand Natural Language Processing, V. 1, Intonation and Syntax, (IBMWorking Papers of the Institute for Logic and Linguistics), Peter Boschand Rob van der Sandt, eds., Heidelberg, Germany, 51–60.
1992 “Haitian null subjects revisited.” In Travaux de Recherche sur le CreoleHaıtien 11, Claire Lefebvre, ed., Universite du Quebec a Montreal, 59–74.
Selected media coverage—online and in newspapers and radio
2013 “Vers une utilisation des outils technologiques en creole dansl’enseignement en Haıti,” Le Nouvelliste, August 16, 2013http://www.lenouvelliste.com/article4.php?newsid=120144
2013 “Landmark MIT-Haiti Initiative Will Transform Education In Haiti,”Wall Street Journal , April 17, 2013http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130417-913181.html
2013 “Haitian Prime Minister visits MIT: Agreement to ‘teach in a languageeveryone can understand’,” The Tech, April 23, 2013http://tech.mit.edu/V133/N20/haiti.html
2013 “MIT and Haiti sign agreement to promote Kreyol language STEMeducation,” MIT News , April 17, 2013http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/mit-haiti-initiative-0417.html
2013 “Ti koze ak Pwofese Michel DeGraff sou nouvo teknoloji pou anseymansyans ak matematik ann Ayiti,” Alterpresse, January 6, 2013http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article13895
2012 “Q&A with Michel DeGraff,” Said and Done, MIT School of Humani-ties, Arts & Social Sciences, 2012http://shass.mit.edu/news/news-2012-interview-with-michel-degraff
2012 “DeGraff awarded $1 million NSF grant to continue linguistics researchin Haiti,” MIT News , October 3, 2012http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/degraff-awarded-nsf-grant-for-haiti-linguistics-
research.html
2012 “Pour une education pratique et moderne,” Le Nouvelliste, April 3, 2012http://www.lenouvelliste.com/article4.php?newsid=103869
2011 “A champion of Creole,” MIT News , May 12, 2011http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/profile-degraff-0512.html
2011 “The Power of Creole,” (cover story by Leon Neyfakh) Boston Globe,Ideas Section, July 24, 2011http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/07/24/the power of creole/
2011 “Pouvwa kreyol la,” in Alterpresse, November 7, 2011 (translation ofLeon Neyfakh’s “The Power of Creole” in Boston Globe, Ideas Section,July 24, 2011) http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article11851
Unpublished Materials
In Press
Forthcoming “A Null Theory of Creole Formation based on Universal Grammar”(with Enoch Aboh) In Oxford Handbook of Universal Grammar, IanRoberts, ed., Oxford University Press, 61pp.
Forthcoming “The ecology of language change in Latin America and the Caribbean.”In Language Evolution in Latin America, Salikoko Mufwene, ed., Cam-bridge University Press, 85pp.
Forthcoming “Some notes on nominal phrases in Haitian Creole and in Gungbe: Atrans-Atlantic Sprachbund perspective” (with Enoch Aboh). In Lan-guage Contact and Language Change: Grammatical Structure Encoun-ters the Fluidity of Language, Tor Afarli and Brit Mæhlum, eds., JohnBenjamins Publishing Company, Series: Linguistik Aktuell/LinguisticsToday, 41pp.
Forthcoming “’Many hands make the load lighter’: Haitian Creole and technology-enhanced active learning toward quality education for all in Haiti.” InProceedings of the Sixth Conference of the Learning International Net-works Consortium (LINC) 2013 conference, 12pp.
Works in progress
2013 “Language acquisition and computational phylogenetics: Creole lan-guages and family values” (with Robert Berwick & Trevor Bass), 111pp.
2013 “Language mismanagement in Haiti” (with Yves Dejean), 51pp.
List of Doctoral Theses Supervised
2011–Present KeraWashington, Haitian Folkloric Arts in the Formation of TransnationalIdentity, Tufts University, Interdisciplinary Doctorate Program, Commit-tee Member
2009–Present Reginald Patterson, Charting “Les Bambous – Les Fables de La Fontainetravesties en patois creole par un vieux commandeur” (1846), Duke Uni-versity, Romance Studies, Committee Member
2012 Carla Martin, Sounding Creole: The Politics of Cape Verdean Language,Music, and Diaspora, Harvard University, African and African-AmericanStudies (primary field: Social Anthropology, secondary field: Ethnomusi-cology), Committee Member
2012 Fernanda Pratas, Tense Features and Argument Structure in CapeverdeanPredicates, Universidade Nuevo de Lisboa, Committee Member
2003 Maria Cristina Cuervo, Datives at Large, MIT, Committee Member
1998 Hooi Ling Soh, Object Scrambling in Chinese, MIT, Committee Member
1997 Marlyse Baptista, The Morpho-Syntax of Nominal and Verbal Categories inCapeverdean Creole, Harvard University, Linguistics, Committee Member