Brenna Reinhart Byrd

Research Interests:
Germanic Linguistics
Turkish-German identity
Hip Hop Studies
Style and Sociolinguistic Variation
Second Language Acquisition
History of the German Language
Game Studies
ConLangs
Proto-Indo-European
Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies
Resistance Vernaculars
Education

2004-2010 Ph.D. Germanic Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Advisor: Christopher M. Stevens
2003-2004 Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany: Germanistik (via DAAD stipend)
2003 M.A., UCLA; Germanic Linguistics
2000 B.A., University of Texas at Austin: German with minor in Linguistics
1998-1999 Universität Kassel, Germany: Germanistik (via VDAC stipend)

Funded Grants
  • Research and Creative Activities Support Program award, $3,000, to create linguistic puzzles for the video game Roots of the Ancients, with Andrew Byrd, 2020. 
  • University of Kentucky Libraries Alternative Textbook Grant Program, $2,500, to continue work on a free OER textbook that teaches Proto-Indo-European through immersive lessons, with Andrew Byrd, 2020.  
  • National Endowment for the Humanities – Digital Projects for the Public Discovery Grant: “The Anatolian Trail: An Indo-European Adventure,” $30,000, to work on the development of a video game to teach Proto-Indo-European linguistics, culture, and archaeology, Co-PI with Andrew Byrd, 2019.  
  • University of Kentucky Libraries Alternative Textbook Grant Program, $2,500, to continue work on a free OER textbook that teaches Proto-Indo-European through immersive lessons, with Andrew Byrd, 2019.  
  • Research and Creative Activities Support Program award, $5,000, to create artwork and voice-acted dialogue on The Anatolian Trail: An Indo-European Adventure, with Andrew Byrd, 2019. 
  • AATG Netzwerk Deutsch funding for Kentucky Chapter Project Deshalb Deutsch!, $700, to create an annual competition and award prizes for students at UK to create videos advertising taking German courses, with Bess Dawson, 2018. 
  • A&S Compressed Course Program, $5,000, to host Award-winning Scottish Playwright Alan McKendrick to co-teach a Compressed Course entitled “Translating for the Stage: How Language Style Affects ‘Successful’ Performance,” 2014.   
Professional Development and Related Work Experience
  • University of Kentucky CELT Teaching Innovation Institute, 2022-2023.  
  • University of Kentucky Arts & Sciences DEI Leaders retreat, Sept. 16, 2022.  
  • Game Worldbuilding and Game World Logic Consultant for Sweet Baby, Inc., 2021-Present.  
  • Linguistic Consultant and Dialect Coach for A44 Games, 2021-2022. 
  • Diversity, Decolonization and the German Curriculum “Why/Whether German” Action Group Discussion, Jan 15, 2021.  
  • KWLA Book Club: ACTFL's Words and Actions: Teaching World Languages Through the Lens of Social Justice, June 29 – July 27, 2020.  
  • University of Kentucky Week of Teaching Virtual Symposium, April 27-May 1, 2020. 
  • University of Kentucky Faculty Fellows Cohort 4: Multimodal Communication 2015-2017.  
  • AATG Professional Development Seminar on Authentic Resources, presented by die Zentrallstelle für das Auslandsschulwesen (ZfA), Lexington, KY, April 2016. 
  • Linguistic Consultant and Dialect Coach for Ubisoft’s video game Far Cry: Primal, 2014-2016. 
  • Meeting Student Needs in College German Programs AATG 3-Day Faculty Seminar on Curriculum Development at the College Level, Georgetown University in Washington, DC, October 10-12, 2014. 
  • A&S-CELT Hybridization Institute, MCLLC representative, UK, Sept. 2013. 
  • Intellectual Inquiry UK Core Assessment: Humanities, UK, May 2012. 
  • Instructional Technology Consultant, Center for Digital Humanities, UCLA, 2008-2010. 
Selected Publications:
  • “Teaching Proto-Indo-European as a Constructed Language,” with Andrew Byrd; Jeffrey Punske, Amy Fountain, and Nathan Sanders (eds.). Language Invention in Linguistics Pedagogy. Oxford University Press (September 2020).  
  • “Supporting Graduate Students of Color in German Studies: A Syllabus,” Ervin Malakaj and Regine Criser (eds.). Diversity, Decolonialization, and the German Curriculum. Palgrave Macmillan (March 2020). 
     
  • “Resistance Vernaculars in Turkish-German Hip-hop,” Justin Williams (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (April 2015)