Jeanine Ntihirageza (Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL) holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Chicago, with a specialization in Bantu languages. She has an MA in Applied Linguistics from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.  She received her BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Burundi where she subsequently taught TEFL and ESL classes as a Lecturer.  She came to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship to do her graduate studies.  Her primary research area is phonology and morphology.  Her other research interests include contact linguistics and Pragmatics.  In addition, she is a currently working on an online bilingual Kirundi-English dictionary with Teddy Bofman and Paul Prez (http://homepages.neiu.edu/~kirundi/dictionary/ ). She is an Associate Professor at Northeastern Illinois University, and Department chair of Anthropology, English Language Program (ELP), Philosophy, and Teaching English as a Second/Foreign Language (TESL).  She is also on the core faculty of the African and African American Studies program. She has taught Theoretical and Applied Linguistics for the last 13 years. She spearheaded a Genocide Research Group that recently organized a symposium on Silencing Genocide in Africa and African Diaspora.