Dying Languages

About the Speaker:

Dr. Sadaf Munshi,

Professor and Chair, Department of Linguistics, University of North Texas.

Dr. Munshi was born and raised in Srinagar in the Indian-administered state of Jammu & Kashmir where she received most of her earlier education. She headed to the United States in 2001 to pursue a doctoral degree in Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin, which she completed in 2006. Dr. Sadaf Munshi’s research focuses on documenting endangered languages in India and Pakistan – the two contentious neighbors engaged in continued political tension. The larger goal of her research is to build lasting collaborations, infrastructure and capacity in these areas, which pose a number of social, political and cultural challenges and obstacles. Aside from her academic achievements, Munshi is a prolific poet, columnist and social critic, who writes in Kashmiri, English and Urdu. She has published numerous articles on various topics related to Kashmiri society and culture, language, politics, and gender. Her social and political critiques and her personal accounts on a wide range of topics have appeared in various publications in print media such as Kashmir Observer, Rising Kashmir, Kashmir Times, Greater Kashmir, Economic and Political Weekly, Scroll.In and Huffington Post, among others. Besides creative writing and poetry, Munshi has a great passion for painting. A self-taught and accomplished artist, she has produced numerous pieces of art in oil, watercolor, and multimedia. A solo exhibition of her paintings was held at the Jammu & Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages in 2014 – the first of its kind by a woman artist in the state.