My name is Troy E. Spier, and I am a Ph.D. student in linguistics at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. I am currently an adjunct English instructor at Reading Area Community College, and I also worked from September-December 2015 as a volunteer humanitarian aid worker, primarily at the Tabanovce Refugee Camp in the Republic of Macedonia and in the Moria Detention Center on Lesvos Island, Greece. Prior to beginning my doctoral studies, I earned a Bachelor of Science in Secondary English Education with teaching certification at Kutztown University.
As a linguist, I am interested in language documentation and description, specifically with a focus on Bantu languages, and mainly from a functional-typological/usage-based theoretical framework. Additionally, I find myself concerned deeply with language-related issues in society, e.g. language contact, death, and shift; the construction, maintenance, and loss of ethnolinguistic identity; and the pedagogical implications of language use, vitality, and stigmatization.
The best way to reach me is through email (tspier AT tulane DOT edu); however, the following outlets are also viable: 
This is a picture of me with K. David Harrison, one of my colleagues featured in The Linguists (2008).
