Dr. Richard A. Rhodes is the interim director of the Canadian Studies Program, and holds the Thomas Garden Barnes Chair in Canadian Studies. He is a professor emeritus of linguistics, specializing in North American Indigenous languages. He received his Ph.D. in from the University of Michigan, where he also taught for ten years. Professor Rhodes joined the faculty at UC Berkeley in 1986, and taught in the Department of Linguistics until his retirement in 2021. In addition to his teaching, he also served as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies in the College of Letters & Science for many years.
Professor Rhodes' research has given particular attention to languages of the Algonquian family, bringing insights gained in fieldwork to bear on typological questions in syntax. He has done extensive fieldwork on the Ottawa dialect of Ojibwe which is spoken primarily in southern Ontario, and on Michif, a language of the Canadian plains consisting of French and Cree elements.
