Category: Uncategorized

The Department’s second colloquium of the Fall quarter will take place at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, October 19, in the Silverman Conference Room. The speaker is Andy Kehler (Department of Linguistics, UC San Diego), and his title is Coherence and the (Psycho-) Linguistics of Pronoun Interpretation. The abstract is available here.

The first workshop for Linguistics undergraduate peer advisors and undergraduate student graders will be held in the Silverman Conference Room, from 8:15 to 9:15 a.m. on Wednesday, October 17. This workshop, a Tutor Training session for new course graders, will be run by Peer Advising Coordinator Katrina Vahedi.

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.

Teach For America is a national corps of outstanding recent college graduates of all academic majors who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools, and become lifelong leaders in ensuring educational  equity and excellence for all children. Its mission is to enlist the nation’s most promising future leaders in the movement to eliminate educational inequality.

The organization is seeking individuals of all academic majors and career interests who have the leadership skills to change the prospects of students growing up today and, ultimately, to effect fundamental changes in society that will make it a place of opportunity for all.

Members of Teach for America commit two years to teach in U.S urban and rural public schools, reaching students who have tremendous potential but don’t have the educational opportunities they deserve. The positions include full salary and benefits. The application deadline is Friday, November 2. For more information, click on the link above.

The Department of Linguistics at the University of Chicago has been authorized to fill a tenure-track assistant professor position in syntax to begin Fall 2008. Applications are especially welcome from candidates whose work addresses issues of morphological and cross-linguistic interest; expertise in experimental or computational methodologies is also welcome. The successful candidate will complement existing strengths in the department but will also add to those strengths in substantive ways, as well as contributing breadth and depth to the undergraduate and graduate curricula. Candidates are expected to hold a Ph.D. by the start date.

To receive fullest consideration, applications and supporting materials should arrive by or on Friday, November 30, 2007. Please send a CV (indicating an e-mail address), statements of research and teaching interests, representative written work, and evidence of excellence in teaching, and the names of three references whom the applicant has asked to send a letter of reference (all letters will be treated as confidential). Candidates should arrange to have the letters of reference sent directly to the search committee. Send all materials to: Syntax Search Committee, Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago, 1010 E. 59th St., Chicago, IL 60637. E-mail inquiries should be directed to merchant@uchicago.edu.

The first Linguistics colloquium of the year takes place at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, October 12, in the Silverman Conference Room (Stevenson College). The speaker is Armin Mester, and his title is Prosodic Categories and Recursion. An abstract for the talk is available here.

The Syntax Circle gets underway for 2007-8 with a presentation by Jim McCloskey, at 12:15 p.m. on Tuesday, October 9, in the Silverman Conference Room. Jim will speak on Movement, Agreement, and Beyond (in Irish).