The University of Arizona Press
May 19, 2026
The University of Arizona podcast features an interview with Georgia C. Ennis author of Rainforest Radio: Language Reclamation and Community Media in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Ennis is an assistant professor of anthropology in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Western Carolina University, where she coordinates the Multimodal Ethnographic Learning and Design (MELD) Lab, an ethnographic media center focused on applied ethnographic media production.
When asked about what motivated her to write this book, Ennis said, “Since I was an undergraduate, I’ve always been interested in how language affects social life and social relationships in Ecuador. First, I’m interested in how environmental change and destruction have affected language and culture in the Amazon there. Second, I’m interested in how communities are using grassroots media to respond to various kinds of oppression. And third, I want to show how well-meaning approaches to language revitalization, especially language standardization, have sometimes have unintended consequences for the communities they’re meant to serve.”
Listen to the full podcast here.
About the book:
Napo Kichwa communities in the Upper Ecuadorian Amazon find themselves doubly marginalized by settler colonialism and well-intentioned language revitalization projects.
In Rainforest Radio Georgia C. Ennis provides a comprehensive ethnographic exploration of Amazonian Kichwa community media, offering a unique look at how Indigenous broadcast and performance media facilitate linguistic and cultural reclamation in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
This work offers a critical analysis of how standardized language revitalization efforts, like the imposition of Unified Kichwa, can inadvertently perpetuate linguistic oppression. Ennis follows producers, performers, and consumers to understand the role of media in language reclamation. Through extensive fieldwork, she provides vivid portrayals of community efforts to sustain the language and cultural practices of their elders amid environmental and social upheaval.
