Amalia Skilton
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amaliaskilton.bsky.social
Amalia Skilton
@amaliaskilton.bsky.social
310 followers 450 following 190 posts
Chancellor’s Fellow (asst prof) in Linguistics @ Edinburgh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 | blogs.ed.ac.uk/amaliaskilton | Indigenous languages of the Americas, language in interaction, psycholinguistics | 🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈 she/her
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amaliaskilton.bsky.social
Out next month! So excited for the whole world in 🐦🐦 and language #revitalization to read what our authors have to share!
Cover of a book titled “Bridging Child Language Research to Practice for Indigenous Language Revitalization” and edited by Amalia Skilton, Ryan E. Henke, and Melvatha R. Chee. The cover shows the green silhouette of the Americas north of Panama, with a blue background of a word cloud of words in 7 Indigenous languages.
October 30, 2025 at 6:40 PM
amaliaskilton.bsky.social
This is probably fruitless but I submitted the attached appeal letter to the termination of my #NEH/#NSF individual fellowship yesterday.

Sent via eGMS Reach to PO, asking to forward to the senior deputy chairman (who has to receive it per T&C).

Sharing as a resource in case
To: Senior Deputy Chairman National Endowment for the Humanities Via: eGMS Reach Re: Appeal of NEH Termination Action Dear Senior Deputy Chairman, I am writing to formally appeal the termination of my NEH fellowship grant FN29861124. Background My grant FN29861124 is an award to individuals. Therefore it is subject to the terms and conditions given at https://www.neh.gov/general-terms-and-conditions-awards-individuals (“NEH Individual Terms and Conditions”). In the NEH Individual Terms and Conditions, Section VIII.Y “Termination” states that “NEH may terminate your award if, for any reason, you choose to discontinue the proposed project before the end of the period of performance or fail to observe the award’s terms and conditions.” This is the only provision of Section VIII.Y which provides for termination of the award by NEH, rather than by the grantee. Termination Notice Is Not Compliant with the NEH Individual Terms and Conditions I received a notice of termination of this grant via email on April 3, 2025. It listed April 3 as the effective date and was signed by Michael McDonald. The termination notice which I received states the reason for termination as follows: “Your grant no longer effectuates the agency’s needs and priorities and conditions of the Grant Agreement and is subject to termination due to several reasonable causes, as outlined in 2CFR§200.340.” However, “no longer effectuating” needs and priorities is not included in the possible reasons for termination laid out in Section VIII of the NEH Individual Terms and Conditions. In fact, the words “effectuate”, “needs” and “priorities” do not appear anywhere in the NEH Individual Terms and Conditions. Furthermore, the termination notice does not list any reason which is included in Section VIII. Specifically, it does not state that I have “[chosen] to discontinue the proposed project before the end of the period of performance” or “[failed] to observe the award’s terms and conditions.” page 2: IIn fact, at the time of the termination, my project was continuing on the work plan approved at the date of award in April 2024, and I was in compliance with all terms and conditions. The termination notice also cites 2CFR§200.340 as justification. The relevant section of 2CFR§200.340 is paragraph (a)(4), which states that grants may be terminated “By the Federal agency or pass-through entity pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Federal award, including, to the extent authorized by law, if an award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.” This paragraph still requires that terminations must be “pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Federal award.” Because this termination was not pursuant to the NEH Individual Terms and Conditions, it is not authorized under 2CFR§200.340. Conclusion NEH did not follow the Individual Terms and Conditions when terminating my individual award. It also did not follow 2CFR§200.340, since that provision requires Federal agencies to act pursuant to the terms and conditions of awards when issuing terminations. Therefore, I request that NEH reinstate the award immediately. Sincerely, Amalia Skilton
April 30, 2025 at 3:31 PM
amaliaskilton.bsky.social
Same flag in eGMS Reach for me. Just sent the appeal. Probably pointless but I suppose we'll see
April 29, 2025 at 12:58 PM
amaliaskilton.bsky.social
This quote from the preface to Enfield's (2008) grammar of Lao has been over my desk the entire time. Captures perfectly the impossible challenge of trying to grasp the 'whole language'.
To understand language, nothing compares with the task of trying to work one's way through the wings of a grand mansion like Lao. It brings unforeseen adventures. Mapping out the lay of the land, one quickly realizes that this house harbors hidden chamber after hidden chamber, secret stairwells, false walls, doorways papered over, whole basements and rooftops undiscovered, mazes, gardens, chapels, cellars and rabbit warrens, it goes on and on without end. So, to repeat a cliche, but a well deserved one: this grammar is incomplete. It is a progress report on a life long project. It is a partial description, an imbalanced description, and in ways an inadequate description. But one has to stop somewhere if the work is to emerge.
April 25, 2025 at 11:05 AM
amaliaskilton.bsky.social
Last week I messaged #NEH via eGMS Reach to confirm the reality of the phishing-style termination email.

Notice the lack of a response to 'Is this authentic'!

There is, of course, still nothing about the termination in Reach
Dear Dr. Skilton, This acknowledges receipt of your email dated 4/4/2025. As we noted in the agency’s previous communication with you, the termination of your grant represents an urgent priority for the Administration. NEH will be repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President’s agenda and is unable to offer you a means of dispute resolution at this time. Sincerely, Office of Grant Management National Endowment for the Humanities 4/4/2025 1:56 PM - Amalia Skilton I received an email from Grant_Notifications@nehemail.onmicrosoft.com with a PDF attached stating that my award FN-298611-24 was terminated. The PDF was signed by Michael McDonald, not by a PO, and does not appear anywhere in my eGMS REACH account. Additionally, the message was sent to my personal email and went to spam. Can you tell me whether it is authentic? Best wishes, Amalia
April 14, 2025 at 11:17 AM
amaliaskilton.bsky.social
Blowing off some steam. Balmaha, Loch Lomond.
Glittering lake waters and blue skies in the foreground with an island and mountains in the background.
April 5, 2025 at 9:50 PM
amaliaskilton.bsky.social
My DEL-DLI award #linguistics has now been terminated as part of the DOGEing of NEH. I'm a little surprised by this because the funding is part NSF 🧪, but the award was administered by NEH.

No award- or program-specific info in the letter. They are not even trying to pretend it's legal.
April 4, 2025 at 3:47 PM
amaliaskilton.bsky.social
Thinking about the return of #measles in the USA. In 2014-5 I did #linguistics fieldwork with Adriano Rios Sanchez - a Maijuna man + talented verbal artist - in Loreto, Peru. This is him.

Adriano knew a ton of traditional song/poetry, learned mostly from his father. He didn't learn more...1/
picture of Adriano Rios Sanchez. He is an Indigenous Amazonian man with short white hair wearing a white baseball cap and polo shirt. He is sitting at a wooden table inside an wooden building
February 27, 2025 at 8:42 PM