Current position
Associate Professor, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen (2024–2029).
Principal Investigator of SUAHIST — Exploring the Deep History of Southern Uto-Aztecan Languages and Peoples — funded by a Starting Grant from the European Research Council.
Previous positions
- 2020–2024 — Assistant Professor, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen
- 2016–2020 — Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen
- 2010–2016 — PhD student, Department of Anthropology, Brown University
- 2009–2010 — External Lecturer, University of Copenhagen
Education
- 2016 — PhD in Anthropology, Brown University
- 2012 — MA in Anthropology, Brown University
- 2007 — MA in Native American Languages and Cultures, University of Copenhagen
- 2003 — BA in Native American Languages and Cultures, University of Copenhagen
Books
- Nahuatl Space: Spatial Grammar and Communicative Practices in Nahuan Languages (editor). John Benjamins. Under revision.
- 2024 — Nahuatl Nations: Language Revitalization and Semiotic Sovereignty in Indigenous Mexico. Oxford Studies in the Anthropology of Language. Oxford University Press.
- 2017 — Amapoualistle: Lecturas en Náhuatl de Hueyapan, Morelos. Fondo Editorial del Estado de Morelos.
Selected recent publications
- Forthcoming — Truths and Roots: Etymology and Nahua Cultural History. Anthropological Linguistics.
- 2025 — with Christophe Helmke. The Language of Teotihuacan Writing. Current Anthropology 66(5):705–739.
- 2024 — Sapir’s Law and the Role of Accent in the Reconstruction of Proto-Corachol-Nahuan. International Journal of American Linguistics 90(2):227–267.
- 2024 — Words in Revolution: How the Nahuas Disappeared from the State of Morelos and from the Historiography of the Mexican Revolution. In Galen Brokaw & Pablo García Loaeza (eds.), The Nahua: Language and Culture from the Sixteenth Century to the Present. University of Colorado Press.
- 2020 — with Carolyn O’Meara. Environmental Adaptation in Language: Spatial Grammar, Landscape Knowledge and Human Survival. Language Dynamics and Change 10(2):230–258.
Full list of publications, with PDFs where available →
Grants and fellowships
- 2023 — Starting Grant, European Research Council
- 2021 — Research Team Seminar, School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe
- 2019 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship
- 2018 — Sapere Aude Research Leader Grant, Independent Research Fund Denmark
- 2016 — Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Independent Research Fund Denmark
- 2015 — NAEd/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship
- 2014 — Pre-doctoral Fellowship, Center for US-Mexican Studies, UC San Diego
Awards
- 2016 — Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching, Brown University
- 2014 — Graduate Student Essay Prize, Society for Linguistic Anthropology
Magnus Pharao Hansen 