Chad Thompson teaches courses in linguistics and Native American folklore. His research has primarily been in Athabaskan languages but has also studied language among the Mon people of Burma/Myanmar and language use by the Old Order Swiss Amish of Northeast Indiana. His areas of interest within linguistics include discourse analysis, functionalism, and language in culture.

Dr. Thompson has studied Native American languages since 1976. He has worked at the Alaska Native Language Center on documenting and preserving Native languages. While there, he worked with school districts and tribal organizations to develop curricula and other material for teaching and reviving the languages. In addition, he worked for two years as the linguist for a dictionary project carried out by the Hupa, a northern California tribe. He is currently the director of the Three Rivers Language Center (link).

His other interests include the bagpipes and the banjo.

You can find his curriculum vitae here.

Below is a youtube video talking about his history and training as a linguist: