Dr. Pilar Valenzuela
Assistant Professor of Spanish Linguistics

Pilar Valenzuela received a B.A. in Hispanic Linguistics & Literature and a Diploma in Anthropology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, as well as a Master’s and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Oregon. She is interested in functional-typological syntax, language contact & change, indigenous South American languages, Spanish Linguistics, and anthropological linguistics. She has published a book entitled Relativization in Shipibo-Konibo: a typologically-oriented study and various articles, especially on Panoan languages; topics include synchronic & historical syntax, ethnobiological taxonomy, and verb borrowing. Her doctoral dissertation, Transitivity in Shipibo-Konibo Grammar, received the “Mary R. Haas Book Award” granted by the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas. Professor Valenzuela has also worked as researcher, instructor and consultant in language development and intercultural bilingual education among the indigenous peoples of Peru and Bolivia. Together with a group of collaborators, she has compiled and edited Koshi Shinanya Ainbo: el testimonio de una mujer shipiba, the bilingual testimony of an indigenous Amazonian woman, which has recently been published in Peru by the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. Other works include her short story "Lecciones de mujeres y arena" published in 2005.  Professor Valenzuela has also been awarded the prestigious Wang-Fradkin Professorship for Scholarly Excellence from 2006-2008. 

Courses Taught at Chapman:

• SPAN 102 - Elementary Spanish II
• SPAN 345 - Spanish Conversation
• SPAN 343 - Advanced Grammar & Composition
• SPAN 396 - Intro to Hispanic Linguistics
• SPAN 440 - A Multidisciplinary Approach to Spanish Bilingualism
• SPAN 441 - Spanish Phonetics and Phonology
• SPAN 499 - Documenting Shiwilu: A moribund language from the Upper Amazon