James Kari
James Kari is a linguist and Professor Emeritus with the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) specializing in the Dene (a.k.a. Athabascan languages) of Alaska. In the past forty-five years he has done extensive linguistic work in many Dene languages including Ahtna, Dena'ina, Koyukon, Deg Hit'an, Holikachuk, Lower Tanana, Middle Tanana, Tanacross, Upper Tanana, and Babine-Witsuwit'en. He was on the faculty of UAF from 1973 until his retirement in 1997. He continues to work on numerous Alaska Native language projects. He is the author or editor of over 200 publications, including  more than 4000 pages of bilingual texts in seven Dene languages. He is the most prolific contributor to the Alaska Native Language Archive (with more than 1000 entries as of 2019). His special interest is Dene ethnogeography, and he has compiled or documented more than 14,000 place names in fourteen Alaska or Canadian Dene languages. He worked with Dena'ina writer and ethnographer Peter Kalifornsky on a 1991 compilation of his creative writings. In 2008 he was the organizer of the Dene–Yeniseian Symposium in Alaska, and co-editor of the volume "The Dene–Yeniseian Connection" published in 2010. In 2009  was selected Kari for the Alaska Governor's Award for the Humanities. In March 2013 Kari received the Professional Achievement Award at the 40th annual meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association. In 2019 he was presented with a volume of papers by colleagues that recognize his career in Dene research (Holton and Thornton 2019). Selected works. Articles Books Co-editor or co-author of: