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Seaira Lett

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Ph.D. Student
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Presidential Fellow

Seaira Lett has a B.A. in Spanish and linguistics from Emory University and a M.Ed. in elementary education from the University of Missouri. 

Seaira’s research interests include language documentation and indigenous languages of Latin America. She earned summa cum laude at Emory for her thesis project on the morphosyntax of Chuj, a Mayan language from Guatemala, in which she collected data primarily via elicitation. She has presented her findings at multiple conferences and published an excerpt of her thesis as well as an article describing Chuj to a non academic audience. 

Seaira also previously served as a kindergarten teacher at a dual-language school in Kansas City, MO, where she taught reading, math, and social studies in Spanish and science in English. 

Education:

B.A. in Spanish and Linguistics, Summa cum laude, Emory University

M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Specific Research Areas:

Mayan, Understudied languages

Grants:

Graduate Research Award, Willson Center for Humanities & Arts, 2023

Selected Publications:

The morphosyntax of imperatives in Chuj (Mayan). 2023. UGA Working Papers in Linguistics (to appear).

Syntax and morphology of San Sebastián Coatán Chuj, a Mayan language of Guatemala. 2021. Emory Undergraduate Research Journal, 17, 56-70.

Awards and Special Recognitions:

Best Graduate Paper, Conference on the Americas, 2023

Spanish & Linguistics Award for Excellence, Emory University, 2020

Articles Featuring Seaira Lett
Monday, April 3, 2023 - 08:04am

This month, the Linguistics department recognizes Ph.D. student Seaira Lett for our DEI Spotlight feature. Seaira was awarded  the Willson Center Graduate Research Award this past month for her study of the Chuj language, a Mayan language primarily…

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