LINGUISTICS AT SANTA CRUZ CONFERENCE

On Saturday, the linguistics department hosted its annual graduate student research conference, LASC. The graduate students presenting work were Sara Cantor, Tommy Denby, Karl DeVries, Peter Fabian, Anna Greenwood, Adam Morgan, Matt Ong, Allan Schwade, and Clara Sherley-Appel. Andy Wedel gave the Distinguished Alumnus Lecture, “Lexical Competition and the Evolution of Phoneme Inventories”. (Find the LASC program here!) The talks were excellent. After the conference, there was a happy gathering over dinner and drinks at the home of Adrian Brasoveanu, who deserves credit for orchestrating LASC this year.

As always, LASC coincided with the department’s Open House weekend for visiting prospective PhD and MA students. A total of seven admitted students were here last week, attending classes and reading group meetings, meeting with faculty, and being treated to the beauty of campus. Friday’s events culminated in a party hosted (again!) by Mark Norris.