Joel Fred Sherzer, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin and co-founder of the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA), passed away peacefully on Sunday, November 6, 2022.

Joel’s major publications include Kuna Ways of Speaking: An Ethnographic Perspective (1983), a groundbreaking ethnography of speaking (often considered the first full-length ethnography of speaking). His Verbal Art in San Blas: Kuna Culture Through Its Discourse (1990) was an exercise in using his discourse-centered approach to language and culture to explore the verbal artistry of a variety of Guna genres of speaking and chanting. The final book in his Guna trilogy, Stories, Myths, Chants, and Songs of the Kuna Indians (2003), further explored verbally artistic ways of speaking, chanting, and singing among the Guna. A summary of Sherzer’s thinking on speech play and verbal art as a critical site for ethnographic investigation was published as Speech Play and Verbal Art (2002). His last book was Adoring the Saints: Fiestas in Central Mexico (with Yolanda Lastra and Dina Sherzer, 2009).

Joel was an early member of SSILA, and he was a cherished mentor and colleague to many of our members. The full obituary is available here: https://ailla.utexas.org/node/233.