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Fall 2014
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Inquiry Magazine Archive

  • Spring 2016

    Spring 2016: Premium Blend

    Found in everything from space shuttles to dental fillings, composite materials have thoroughly infiltrated modern society. But their potential is still greatly untapped, offering researchers ample opportunity for discovery.

  • Fall 2015

    Fall 2015: Collision Course

    Within the particle showers created at the Large Hadron Collider, answers to some of the universe’s mysteries are waiting.

  • Spring 2015

    Spring 2015: Almost Human

    Model systems like pigeons can help illuminate our own evolutionary and genomic history.

  • Fall 2014

    Fall 2014: Small Wonder

    UT Arlington's tiny windmills are bringing renewable energy to a whole new scale.

  • Winter 2014

    Winter 2014: Overdue for an Overhaul

    The stability of our highways, pipelines, and even manholes is reaching a breaking point.

  • 2012

    2012: Mystery solved?

    Scientists believe they have discovered a subatomic particle that is crucial to understanding the universe.

  • 2011

    2011: Boosting brain power

    UT Arlington researchers unlock clues to the human body’s most mysterious and complex organ.

  • 2010

    2010: Powered by genetics

    UT Arlington researchers probe the hidden world of microbes in search of renewable energy sources.

  • 2009

    2009: Winning the battle against pain

    Wounded soldiers are benefiting from Robert Gatchel’s program that combines physical rehabilitation with treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

  • 2009

    2007: Sensing a solution

    Tiny sensors implanted in the body show promise in combating acid reflux disease, pain and other health problems.

  • 2006

    2006:Semiconductors: The next generation

    Nanotechnology researchers pursue hybrid silicon chips with life-saving potential.

  • 2005

    2005: Imaging is everything

    Biomedical engineers combat diseases with procedures that are painless to patients.

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Lexicon

Keeping Languages Alive

Preserving Native American dialects is the goal of UTA linguist Colleen Fitzgerald's wide-ranging research  

flash cards

Flashcards like these help introduce new Chickasaw words.

All over the world, languages are dying. According to some studies, more than half of the world’s estimated 6,000 languages will become extinct during our lifetime. But indigenous communities and linguists aren’t giving up without a fight.

Among those leading the charge is Colleen Fitzgerald, professor of linguistics and TESOL and one of the foremost researchers on endangered Native American languages. Among her NSF-funded projects is a series of workshops that help Native Americans in Oklahoma organize language classes, translate stories, create dictionaries, and more.

“There’s a synergistic relationship between training and teaching,” Dr. Fitzgerald explains. “It’s not only about training community members, but training students to do the research ethically and responsibly.”

She is also collaborating with Joshua Hinson, director of the Chickasaw Language Revitalization Program, to document and analyze Chickasaw verbs. Chickasaw, a Muskogean language originally used in the Southeastern United States, is now spoken in south-central Oklahoma by only 80 people, at most.

Over the summer, UTA hosted the 2014 Institute on Collaborative Language Research, which focused on Native American languages. The event offered students, practicing linguists, and indigenous community members the chance to develop and refine skills and approaches to language documentation and revitalization.

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