Dr. Claire Bowern

Biography

Claire Bowern is a historical linguist whose research focuses on language change and language documentation, particularly in Indigenous Australia. Her work addresses the overarching question of how to characterize the nature of language change, which involves a complex interplay between universal properties of language acquisition and production as well as community-specific social factors. Bowern's research program examines the micro changes that contribute to the macro changes leading to language families. She collaborates with speakers of endangered languages and utilizes archival sound and print materials alongside computational phylogenetic methods. Bowern currently serves as the editor of the journal Diachronica and has previously held the position of director for Yale’s Women Faculty Forum, a gender equity group on campus. She also holds secondary appointments in the Anthropology department and in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and is a member of the Cognitive Science faculty.

Research Interests