معرفی
Amalia Skilton is a Chancellor's Fellow (Assistant Professor) in Linguistics & English Language at the University of Edinburgh's School of Philosophy, Psychology & Language Sciences. She is a field linguist and linguistic anthropologist specializing in Indigenous languages of the Americas, with extensive research experience in the Amazon Basin.
Her research focuses on child-caregiver interaction, language acquisition, pragmatics, and documentation of endangered and Indigenous languages. Dr. Skilton has conducted over 26 months of fieldwork with speakers of Ticuna (an isolate language) and Máíhɨ̃ki (Tukanoan) in the Amazon Basin, making significant contributions to linguistic documentation of these endangered languages.
Her recent scholarly work demonstrates strong trends in language documentation tools and methodologies, particularly focusing on improving workflows between ELAN and FLEx software for linguistic fieldwork. Her publications bridge theoretical linguistics with practical applications for language preservation, showing particular strength in developing tools that support Indigenous language communities.
- Chancellor's Fellow (prestigious early-career fellowship)
- Member of the Language and Society Scotland network
- Active participant in the linguistic academic community through conferences and collaborations
Dr. Skilton has advised on language documentation projects and contributed to knowledge exchange initiatives focused on endangered languages. Her work extends to developing practical tools like Flibl that address specific challenges in linguistic fieldwork documentation. She maintains active research collaborations with institutions including MPI Nijmegen and has presented her work at major linguistic conferences including SSILA.
She leads research teams focused on Amazonian language documentation and has established fieldwork protocols that prioritize community engagement and ethical research practices with Indigenous communities.
