Last calendar year, I revised a manuscript with Sophie Pierson (UT Austin, now at IXL Learning), Sunny Ananthanarayan (Washington), and Claire Bowern (Yale) on consequences of the broken digital infrastructure for language documentation.

This manuscript has now been published in the Language Documentation & Revitalization section of Language.

The abstract reads:

Linguists need to collect, organize, analyze, and share data. Despite the variability of linguistic research in terms of inputs and outcomes, there are some common stages, including morphological parsing, lexicon creation, and textual editing. A common software tool for this work is FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx). In this article, we examine some of the ways that FLEx’s data structures conflict with contemporary practices in language work. These assumptions exclude key groups of users and erect barriers to theoretically and practically relevant research. Where workarounds are feasible, they are both fragile and costly. We use this example to start a broader conversation about software infrastructure for digital linguistic data analysis, and how problems with this infrastructure reflect larger issues in the discipline.

Read the final published version on the journal website (not open access until September 2026). Or read our final accepted version here (open access).

September 2025: Digital Infrastructure Article out in Language / Dr. Amalia Skilton - Chancellor's Fellow by is licensed under a