Staff profile

I work at the intersection of psychology, anthropology and linguistics, seeking answers to questions such as 'how do humans form concepts of ethnicity through time and space?' and 'do certain sounds pair with certain meanings more naturally?' amongst others. I combine ethnographic fieldwork approaches in Amazonia and Belize with experiments. I hold an MA from Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, having completed the thesis 'Sound Symbolism in the Turkish Tongue'. 

Chapter in book

• When Nature calls: Language, biodiversity and icons in Western Amazonia
  
  Howard, A. (2026). When Nature calls: Language, biodiversity and icons in Western Amazonia. In K. Hens & F. Vulliermet (Eds.), Nature and the Environment in World Philosophies: Diversifying Environmental Thought (pp. 217-234). Bloomsbury. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350555105.ch-011
• Conflict in Interaction Diverging Topic Trajectories and Misalignment
  
  Geenen, J., & Howard, A. (2024). Conflict in Interaction Diverging Topic Trajectories and Misalignment. In L. Vásquez Rocca, N. Artemeva, & C. G. Fogarty-Bourget (Eds.), Multimodality Studies in International Contexts: Contemporary Trends and Challenges. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003367550-15

Journal Article

• The social lives of isolates (and small language families): the case of the Northwest Amazon
  
  Van Gijn, R., Norder, S., Arias, L., Emlen, N. Q., Azevedo, M. C. B. C., Caine, A., Dunn, S., Howard, A., Julmi, N., Krasnoukhova, O., Stoneking, M., & Wiegertjes, J. (2023). The social lives of isolates (and small language families): the case of the Northwest Amazon. Interface Focus, 13(1), Article 20220054. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2022.0054
• Interpreting mismatches between linguistic and genetic patterns among speakers of Tanimuka (Eastern Tukanoan) and Yukuna (Arawakan)
  
  Arias, L., Emlen, N. Q., Norder, S., Julmi, N., Lemus Serrano, M., Chacon, T., Wiegertjes, J., Howard, A., Azevedo, M. C. B. C., Caine, A., Dunn, S., Stoneking, M., & Van Gijn, R. (2023). Interpreting mismatches between linguistic and genetic patterns among speakers of Tanimuka (Eastern Tukanoan) and Yukuna (Arawakan). Interface Focus, 13(1), Article 20220056. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2022.0056