Nichim
[Address Redacted], Vermont
Curriculum
Vitae
Education
Continuing education in
androgogy and assessment, Vermont Department of Education
I
am trained to administer assessments of oral English comprehension and
production (BEST PLUS), basic skills in reading, writing, and math, including
pre-literacy (TABES, CASAS), and preparedness for the GED (GEDP). I can
discourse ad nauseum on these
assessments and their failings. I have also received training in leading book
discussion groups (VOICES) and in coaching approaches to overcoming challenges
in executive functioning.
Introduction to
Wheel-Thrown Pottery, Montpelier Mud, 2011-2012
Made
a large number of very awkward bowls, cups, and plates. Gave them as gifts to
family and friends.
Coursework in Website
Development, Community College of Vermont, 2011
I
received an A+ in this online class, often correcting the instructor’s broken
links and outdated content. For my final project, I hard-coded a fan site for
the long-running British television series Doctor Who using HTML and CSS,
including custom-made buttons linking to my favorite Doctor Who fan-generated
content.
Master of Arts in Teaching
English to Speakers of Other Languages, Portland State University, 2010
Thesis
describing the collaborative creation of new texts in Chinuk Wawa by non-Native
second language speakers, using a meticulous iterated process of tracking and
categorizing changes made in the editing process. Took every theoretical
linguistics class available in the Applied Linguistics department, including
Syntax and Semantics in the same semester.
Bachelor of Arts in Spanish
Literature and Languages, Reed College, 1997
Thesis
comparing five translations of the Popol Vuh (an ancient Quiche Mayan text of
Guatemala, inscribed at the time of conquest) using the tools of
deconstructionist literary criticism. This work involved travel to the
incomparable Newberry Library in Chicago, where I spent three days with the
oldest extant copy of the Popol Vuh and accompanying descriptions of the Quiche
and Kakchiquel languages. Extensive coursework in linguistics. Extensive
leisure time spent talking with physicists.
Professional Positions
Teacher/Community
Coordinator for Central Vermont Adult Basic Education
Responsibilities
include getting adults excited about basic arithmetic, including fractions,
decimals, and percents; explaining the combinatory power of the English simple
and perfect tenses to order past events in narrative; and complaining about the
ineffectiveness and inadequacies of federally approved basic skills
assessments.
Proofreader, editor, and
formatter for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
Collaborated
with a cantankerous, eccentric linguistic anthropologist to design and output a
dictionary of Chinuk Wawa, based on speech collected from Grand Ronde elders.
This work required profound and inexhaustible attention to myriad details,
including standardizing orthographic conversions, hacking change tables in
outdated databases to produce desired output, confirming correspondence between
CW->EN and EN->CW sections, maintaining strict version control in the
face of tremendous disorganization, and making sure said anthropologist didn’t
kill himself or anyone else.
Translation Services
Coordinator / Quality Assurance Specialist / Oregon Notary Public for the
International Language Bank
Obsessively
enjoyed proofreading foreign language texts. Zealously guarded good moral
character as a notary public, performing the pettiest of public functions for
hundreds of refugees and immigrants, including Ukrainian ladies, Ethiopian
grandfathers, and Cambodian monks.
Exotic Dancer for various
establishments, including the venerable Mary’s Club
Hung
upside-down in various states of undress while undulating artfully to the music
of a wide catalog of dorky bands, including Gang of Four, They Might be Giants,
and Polvo. Prepared numerous unpublished manuscripts on the intersection of
this work with the writings of Antonin Artaud (The Theater and its Double) and
Irving Goffman (The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life). Twice won the
annual academic contest sponsored by eccentric customer “Professor” Ronald Mar,
a traffic engineer from Renton, Washington.
Musician for various
outfits, including Horn Jam, Whatever Girl the Musical, Space Hawk, Unitarian
Universalist Church of Montpelier, and The Red Cloud Quartet
I
play the oboe. And the tenor recorder. I also own a euphonium and enjoy
volunteering at the annual used musical instrument swap in Montpelier. Many of
my most recent musical performances have involved backing up a local
singer-songwriter on horns and drums for an audience of church ladies. With the
psychedelic space rock band Space Hawk, I co-wrote and designed evangelical
pamphlets heralding the return of a mighty alien bird deity through embodiment
in musical performance.
Publications
Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde Chinuk Wawa Dictionary Project, 2011. Chinuk Wawa: kakwa ntsayka ulman-tilixam ɬaska
munk-kəmtəks ntsayka / As our elders teach us to speak it. Seattle:
University of Washington Press.
Zenk,
H., Johnson, T., and Nichim, 2010. “Chinuk Wawa (Chinook Jargon)
Etymologies.” In Proceedings of the 45th
International Conference of Salish and Neighboring Languages. Vancouver,
BC: University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics, p. 270-348.
Dickerson,
T. and Nichim, 2009. “The Time of Space Hawk.” Portland, OR:
Meaning Liberation Media.
Awards
Vice-Dork,
Life and Times of Michael 5000, 2010. Also Acting Vice-Dork, 2011.
James
D. Nattinger Fellow, Portland State University Department of Applied
Linguistics, 2009.
President’s
Award for Academic Excellence, Reed College, 1997.
Paul
Pfutze Merit Scholarship, Oakwood School, 1993.
Affiliations
Northern
New England Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
Freeride
Montpelier Bicycle Collective: Spoke Organizer
The
Red Cloud Quartet: Oboe, recorder, drums
Central
Vermont Fiber Community: Carding, spinning, dying, knitting, crocheting
Unitarian
Universalist Church of Montpelier: Co-Chair of Holiday Bazaar “Attic Treasures”
table
Chinuk
Wawa Writers Circle
Obsessive interests not
mentioned above
The
works of J.R.R. Tolkien and related ephemera
Encyclopedias
Identification
and taxonomy of fungi and, to a lesser extent, lichens
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