Walkie Charles to lead Alaska Native Language Center
July 27, 2021
Walkie Charles will lead the Alaska Native Language Center as the new director following the retirement of Siri Tuttle. Charles began this role effective July 4.
Charles was born and raised in Emmonak, Alaska. At the age 12, he was sent to Wrangell Institute (a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school) before subsequently graduating from Mt. Edgecumbe High School. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1988 and taught for the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District until 1992. He then went to the University of Massachusetts Amherst under a scholarship to pursue his master’s degree in 1993.
Charles returned to Fairbanks and began teaching Yup’ik at UAF. He received his Ph.D. from UAF in applied linguistics in 2011. His interests include dynamic assessment, sociocultural theory, and Yugtun (Yup’ik Eskimo) language teaching and learning. His dissertation was titled “Dynamic Assessment in a Yugtun L2 Intermediate Adult Classroom."
“We are incredibly fortunate to welcome Dr. Charles as the first Alaska Native director of ANLC," said interim Vice Chancellor Charlene Stern. "We look forward to continuing to grow and expand our programs to support Indigenous language revitalization, documentation, instruction and language learning in our state.”
The ANLC was established by the Alaska Legislature in 1972 as a center for research in and documentation of Indigenous languages in Alaska. Today, ANLC includes the Alaska Native Language Archive and the Alaska Native Language Program, and strives to document, cultivate, and promote Indigenous languages, contributing to their future and to the heritage of all Alaskans.