John Joseph Sullivan Hendricks

Professor of Nahua Language and Culture at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, director of the Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, A.C.(http://www.idiez.org.mx), and Macehualli Educational Research (http://www.macehualli.org), John Sullivan’s goal is to establish an academic degree program in Nahua Letters for native speakers which will be conducted entirely in Nahuatl.  To this end, he and his indigenous teaching and research assistants from Northern Veracruz are preparing modern-content monolingual versions of the three major Older Nahuatl reference works: Alonso de Molina’s dictionary, Horacio de Carochi’s grammar, and Bernardino de Sahagún’s encyclopedia.  They also teach a six-week summer intensive course attended by professors and graduate students from U.S. and European universities.  The curriculum includes Older Nahuatl, Modern Nahuatl conversation and grammar, individual work with native speakers, and a week-long home stay in the village of Tepecxitla, Veracruz, where students participate in the Chicomexochitl ceremony.