Benjamin E. Frey, Ph.D. (EBCI) is Assistant Professor of Cherokee Language and Culture at the University of North Carolina-Asheville.
Frey’s research interests center on sociolinguistics, with particular emphasis on language shift. “The motivation for my interest in language shift is primarily in language revitalization. If we can understand the processes that led to a shift away from endangered languages,” he suggests, “we can also work with communities to promote their growth.” As a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Frey has an encompassing vision for Cherokee language preservation and revitalization.
“I knew that my grandmother’s experiences at boarding school had meant that she did not pass the language on to my mother or her siblings,” he writes in the foreword of People of Kituwah, “so I had missed out on learning it at home.” But by the time he had finished high school he had written an honors thesis on his uncle Robert Bushyhead’s book, Cherokee Language Lessons.
He went on to Western Carolina University where he served as a teaching assistant for Dr. Tom Belt’s Cherokee language classes before heading to Chapel Hill to earn his B.A. in German and Linguistics from the University of NC, and then to the University of Wisconsin in Madison to earn his Master’s and Ph.D. in German and Linguistics. But each summer for that whole time he would return to the Qualla Boundary to work on the Cherokee language. He helped annotate Cherokee texts, taught courses in Cherokee grammar, and helped lay the groundwork for the Eastern Band’s online Cherokee language engine. “Throughout the years,” he says, ” I have had the honor of working with many influential figures in Cherokee language revitalization, from Gil Jackson and his sisters Shirley Oswalt and Lou Jackson to [Beloved Woman] Myrtle Driver Johnson.
Read about his books here (and order your copy!):
Focus on Books by Benjamin E. Frey (EBCI), PhD, Assistant Professor of Cherokee Language and Culture, University of North Carolina-Asheville.