ALUMNA REPORT: EMILY MANETTA
After a year in a temporary position at the University of Vermont, Emily Manetta (UCSC Ph.D., 2006) accepted a tenure-track position there. Emily, who is in the Department of Anthropology, is heavily involved in the further development of Linguistics at the University of Vermont. She reports:
Things are good, though challenging. The good stuff: I’m happily encsconced in my new office in the Anthropology department. I’m teaching two freshman seminars; one is called Language and Mind, the other is basically baby semantics and is filled with bright, inquisitive students. I am currently advising two undergraduates who are considering applying to graduate school in linguistics. The linguistics minor has been approved by the curriculum committee; the Program in Linguistics and the accompanying major are in process and have the dean’s support.
As far as research is concerned, I am working on a paper which explores the sluicing facts in Hindi-Urdu further. The structure of the paper is what is interesting to me, considering in turn proposals which address what seems to be sluicing in other wh-in-situ contexts (Japanese, etc.), and rejecting them on empirical grounds. The other thing I’m interested in at the moment is causative constructions in Kashmiri (something I stumbled upon in Delhi this past summer). The range of case assignment and agreement possibilities (especially once ergativity is thrown into the mix) is what I find unusual.
The challenging part is now being a full-fledged faculty member of a changing department without the stability (and associated experience) that I’m used to. I think I’m going to be able to figure out how to balance teaching and research, something I didn’t really have to do while writing my dissertation (mashallah), but that I now really need to learn. So, in other words, I have a lot of work to do and I’m negotiating how I can be good at that in an Anthropology department. It’s a place I very much like living in and I’m surrounded by smart and interesting people. I’m working on a few joint efforts with new colleagues which, though they are at the periphery of my experience and what I do, allow me to connect with them and allow them to see what my work is about. I guess it isn’t worth doing if it’s too easy.