Profile

Eliot Raynor received undergraduate degrees in Linguistics and Spanish from UNC-Chapel Hill (2003), an M.A. in Spanish from the University of South Carolina (2009), and an M.A. (2016) and PhD candidacy (2019) in Hispanic Linguistics at Indiana University. His research focuses broadly on the languages and histories of northwestern Colombia, esp. 16th-18th c., when speakers of Amerindian and West African languages surpassed those of Spanish background, leaving linguistic and cultural imprints lasting to the present day. He recently (2022) co-authored an article in the Journal of Ibero-Romance Creoles on the agency of Amerindians and Africans in the emergence of highland varieties of Spanish in Colombia and Bolivia, and he currently serves as treasurer of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics. In the classroom, Eliot has partnered with the Universidad de Córdoba and the Universidad de Caldas in Colombia to facilitate Spanish- and English-learner interactions with native speakers via computer-mediated communication. Outside the university, Eliot has worked as an adult ESL instructor, immigration paralegal, and bilingual family counselor with Habitat for Humanity. At home, Eliot shares an endlessly enriching life with his spouse and two children.