Raina Heaton

Raina Heaton is an Associate Professor in Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma, with an additional role as Associate Curator of the Native American Languages Collection at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Her work focuses on endangered language documentation, revitalization, and morphosyntactic typology, particularly antipassive constructions and syntactic ergativity. She teaches courses in language documentation, revitalization methods, and Native American languages.

• Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
• M.A. in Linguistics from Tulane University
• B.S. in Linguistics from Tulane University

Her research spans several key areas: language documentation, digital archiving, Enlhet-Enenlhet languages, Mayan linguistics, language acquisition, and language endangerment. She leads collaborative projects including the Tunica Language Project and Enenlhet Documentation Project, with a focus on creating accessible digital resources and community engagement.

Her recent publications analyze syntactic phenomena in Mayan languages, digital humanities methodologies for Native American literature, and language acquisition strategies. She has received significant funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and institutional grants for these projects.

• Director of the Oklahoma Native American Youth Language Fair (2018–present)
• Board member of OU Humanities Forum (2022–2024, 2025–2026)
• OU Presidential Professor (2024)

She actively collaborates with tribes across Oklahoma, focusing on digital repatriation of archival materials and language stewardship. Her sabbatical (2024–2025) will further these goals through extended research and community engagement efforts.