Dr. Jocelyn Ahlers is an engaged linguistic anthropologist with work in a range of areas.  Much of her work focuses on engagement with Native California communities who are working to document, revitalize, and reclaim their languages of heritage, most recently working with the nüwa abigip (Kawaiisu).  This community-driven work involves collaboration with community language researchers, resulting in the development of teaching grammars, dictionaries, language teaching materials, and extensive archives of conversational language.  Dr. Ahlers, in collaboration with Dr. Marie Thomas (Professor Emerita, Psychology), has also engaged in an ethnographic look at the modern knitting community in North America, with a focus on identity and well-being.  She is also engaged in better understanding the impact of the use of contemplative pedagogical practices on student well-being in the classroom.

PhD, Linguistics
University of California, Berkeley, 1999

Interests

Dr. Jocelyn Ahlers is a linguistic anthropologist whose work focuses on the documentation and revitalization of Native California languages.  Her collaborative projects with a number of tribes across the state have resulted in the development of teaching grammars, a semantic dictionary, and language teaching materials.  She has also helped to lead a number of language camps and has been involved in training language teachers and learners, under the auspices of the Master-Apprentice Language Learning Program and the Breath of Life, Silent No More Language Restoration Workshop. Ahlers' recent research has focused on the role of Native California languages as semiotic resources in the performance of multiple and overlapping identities among Native Californians, and her published work includes a consideration of the role of non-fluent language use in public identity work, as well as an examination of conflicting interpretations of gendered language use in the context of language revitalization.  She has also recently begun a collaborative project with Dr. Marie Thomas of the Psychology Department which is focused on an ethnographic examination of the modern knitting community in North America. 

• English Grammar and Syntax
• Introduction to Linguistics
• Linguistic Field Methods
• Introduction to Critical Education
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Language and Gender

Grant, Laura and Jocelyn Ahlers.  2021.  “Sawmill at Paiute Mountain”.  In D. Beck and F. Zuniga (eds), Texts in the Indigenous Language of the Americas: Uto-Aztecan Narratives.  International Journal of American Linguistics 87(1):27-49.

Basu, Ranjeeta, Jocelyn Ahlers, Jacqueline Thomas, and Jill Weigt.  2020.  “Working toward beloved community:  Contemplative practice and social justice in one public university”. Journal of Contemplative Inquiry.

Stuhr, Paul, Jocelyn Ahlers, Jennifer Jeffries, and Jacqueline Thomas.  2018.  “Mindfulness from A to Z: Concepts, practices, and resources for health and physical educators.”  California Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance eJournal 4(2):25-37.

Ahlers, Jocelyn and Marie Thomas. 2018.  “Why do you knit? Exploring the role of knitting in identity and well-being.”  In Friendship and Happiness: A Global Perspective, Vernon Press.

Ahlers, Jocelyn.  2017.  “Native California languages as semiotic resources in the performance of identity.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 27(1):1-15.

Ahlers, Jocelyn.  2017.  “Food, talk, and knitting: Mutually reinforcing ideologies in adult language socialization.”  Semiotics Review. 

Ahlers, Jocelyn.  2014.  “Linguistic variation and time travel:  Barrier, or border-crossing?” Language and Communication 38:33-43.

Vejby, Mara and Jocelyn Ahlers.  2013.  Land, customs, and language: The preservation of social memories.  In Gibson, Catriona and Adrian Chadwick (eds.) Memory, Myth and Long-Term Landscape Inhabitation.  Oxbow.

Ahlers, Jocelyn.  2012.  "Language revitalization and the (re)constituting of gender."  Gender and Language.

Ahlers, Jocelyn. 2012.  "Two eights make sixteen beads: The counting systems of Elem Pomo."  International Journal of American Linguistics.

Ahlers, J. Forthcoming.  Native California languages and intersecting identities.  In Papers from the First VOX California Workshop.

Ahlers, Jocelyn. 2009.  "The many meanings of collaboration: Fieldwork with the Elem Pomo."  Language and Communication 29(3):230-243.

Ahlers, Jocelyn and Suzanne Wertheim. 2009.  "Reflecting on language and culture fieldwork in the early 21^st century."  Language and Communication 29(3):2-7.

Ahlers, Jocelyn. 2006.  "Framing discourse:  Creating community through Native language use."  Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 16(1).

Hinton, Leanne and Jocelyn Ahlers. 1999.  "The issue of "authenticity" in California language restoration." Anthropology and Education Quarterly 30(1):56-67.

Ahlers, J. 1997.  "Cognitive metaphors in Hupa."  American Indian Culture and Research Journal.  21:3.