Keren D. Rice

Her work on Dene (Slave[y]) constitutes a masterpiece of descriptive linguistics, and her theoretical work in phonology and morphology (sound- and word-structure) is at the forefront of these fields so central to the study of the indigenous languages of the Americas. For eleven years Editor of the definitive journal focusing on these languages (International Journal of American Linguistics), throughout her career she has studied the immensely complex and challenging languages of Canadian First Nations and has been a tireless advocate rendering service to the communities of speakers, initiating new forms of collaboration with them and their heritage descendants for preservation, revitalization, and teaching programs central to their identity.