Kristin E. Denham

Kristin E. Denham is a linguist and professor in the Department of Linguistics at Western Washington University. Her research and teaching interests include syntactic theory, Native American languages, language teaching and revitalization projects, and linguistics in K-12 education. Denham has studied question formation in Babine-Witsuwit'en, an Athabaskan language, and has also done some work on Salish languages, spoken throughout the Salish Sea region.

Biography

Denham obtained her Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Washington in 1997. Her dissertation was titled "A minimalist account of optional wh-movement". Her committee was chaired by Frederick Newmeyer. Denham first joined Western Washington University in 1996 as a Visiting assistant professor.

Denham directs several projects related to linguistics in K-12 education. Among these are Exploring Language: Daily Language Investigations for English Language Arts and Voices of the Pacific Northwest. In April 2020, Denham was featured in the Linguistic Society of America's Member Spotlight.

Awards In 2024, Denham was inducted as a Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America.

Selected publications

Denham, Kristin, and Anne Lobeck (eds.) (2005). Language in the schools: Integrating linguistic knowledge into K–12 education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.