Carol Genetti

Vice Provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Programs Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Education: BA University of Oregon; MA University of Oregon; PhD University of Oregon

Research Areas: Himalayan linguistics, language documentation, linguistic typology, endangered languages


Carol Genetti is a linguist who specializes in Himalayan languages, especially those of the Tibeto-Burman language family. Her work spans multiple subfields of linguistics, including language documentation, syntax, historical linguistics, and prosody. She seeks to discover how linguistic structures are shaped by speakers' use of language as a tool of communication in their daily lives. She is committed to supporting endangered-language speech communities and was the Founding Director of InField/Colang, a biennial institute that brings together linguists and speakers of endangered languages for shared research and teaching in techniques of language documentation, conservation, and revitalization. Her 2007 monograph, A Grammar of Dolakha Newar, received the inaugural Georg von der Gabelentz Award from the Association for Linguistic Typology. She is also the author of an introductory textbook, How Languages Work, now in its 2nd edition.

Carol Genetti serves as Vice Provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Programs at NYU Abu Dhabi, where she works to create, advance, and support premier graduate and postdoctoral programs that embody the global, liberal arts, and interdisciplinary ethos of the campus. She joins NYUAD from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she served for eight years as Dean of the Graduate Division and held the Anne and Michael Towbes Graduate Dean Chair. Prior to that, she served for seven years as Associate Dean in Humanities and Fine Arts and six years as Chair of the Department of Linguistics.