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Gong to UCSC

Mia Gong, currently finishing her Ph.D at Cornell, will be joining the department as an Assistant Professor in Fall of 2022. Mia’s central area of research is theoretical syntax and the syntax-morphology interface. Her work brings to bear data from original fieldwork in Mongolic languages on such fundamental questions as the nature of phrasal movement and of linearization.

 

Congrats, Mia, and welcome to Santa Cruz!

Chuspie Forever!

The 35th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing took place (virtually) at Santa Cruz over Spring Break: March 24-26, 2022. Organized by an interdivisional committee of language scientists at UCSC, HSP brought together over 1100 registered participants from 15 timezones for 3 days of papers (27), posters (274) and invited talks (6). It featured presentations by numerous Banana Slugs, including Vishal Arvindam, Lalitha Balachandran, Richard Bibbs, Yaqing Cao, Maya Wax Cavallaro, Jack Duff, Jean E. Fox Tree, Matthew Kogan, Jess Law, Allison Nguyen, Stephanie Rich, Ivy Sichel, Maziar Toosarvandani, Nick Van Handel, and Matt Wagers; and alums Caroline Andrews, Kirby Conrod, Steven Foley, Jed Sam Pizarro-Guevara, and Shayne Sloggett. Recordings of the spoken presentations can be found at https://tinyurl.com/hsp2022-public.

 

The spirit of (C)H(u)SP, lovingly but sporadically phonologized in the halls of Stevenson as tʃ{u,ʊ,ʌ}sp, was represented by our beloved mascot, Chuspie the Otter. Thankfully, it’s not too late to score some Chuspie merch (https://www.chuspieshop.com), such as the fashionable but controversial bucket hat. For a little history of the conference – and, particularly, its name – surf over to Arnold Zwicky’s blog (35 years of the CHSP | Arnold Zwicky’s Blog).

 

Whasc Profile: James Funk

Continuing with the trend of interviews, this week we have an interview with James Funk, the department’s graduate advisor and program coordinator.

Whasc: so unlike our past two interviewees, the move to Santa Cruz has been more of an expedition for you than a return. Could you tell us a bit more about the path that has brought you here?

James: I was just starting as a visiting assistant professor of English at UC Riverside when my partner got a job in Santa Cruz. My plan was to join her here at the end of the 2019-20 academic year, but my actual relocation date turned out to be March 13, 2020: I thought I was just driving up for an extended spring break, but the only time I returned to Riverside was to clear out our apartment a couple months later. I spent the 2020-21 academic year lecturing (remotely) at UC Irvine, but by then I was ready to experience the university from a slightly different perspective. I’m glad to get the opportunity to do so at UCSC.
Whasc? After the past year, how do you find Santa Cruz, compared to Irvine and Riverside? And how has it been to adjust to things here in this time?
James: On the one hand, Santa Cruz is radically different from the places I lived in Southern California (Irvine for grad school, then Riverside). One example: I replaced my running route in Riverside, which took me through a subdivision and a business park, with West Cliff Drive. But there’s a way in which I still haven’t experienced Santa Cruz. Not only did the pandemic limit my ability to explore the town, but it allowed me to continue my professional life in Southern California even though I physically resided here. I feel like I’ve only recently made the full transition, and I really need to start making up for lost time.
Whasc: the pandemic has provided us with plenty of time to sit and think. Could you tell us a bit about how you’ve filled this time, and what you’re planning to do once it’s slightly less bad?

James: I spent part of the pandemic getting married. Maybe one day I’ll get to go on a honeymoon?

HSP2022 @ UCSC

On March 24-26, 2022, UCSC will (virtually) host the 35th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing [la conférence née CUNY]. The interdisciplinary organizing committee – with representatives from Linguistics, Languages and Applied Linguistics, and Psychology – is steered by Professors Amanda Rysling and Matt Wagers.

The program was released on February 15– a belated Valentine. It includes 27 plenary presentations, 278 poster presentations, and 6 invited presentations on the special theme of “Prosody, Gesture & Meaning.” Many UCSC linguists, past and present, are on the schedule. You will also find a bevy of papers on sentence processing in speakers whose languages are rarely studied in psycholinguistics, like Äiwoo, Tagalog and Indonesian.

Registration is free and open to all. Find out more at https://hsp2022.ucsc.edu.

Eruption in 217!

At 10:15 AM on Thursday 2/10, department members heard a cracking noise and watched as a cloud of smoke poured out from a lighting fixtures in 217. The room was swiftly evacuated and the syntax seminar relocated to the Cave, and soon after, the order came down to keep the lights off in that room until further notice. A riveting experience on a Thursday morning!

Whasc has gathered witness testimony from one of the attendees. Niko Webster, in his second year, writes: “a mildly terrifying experience that thankfully didn’t result in any serious concern- Lightbulb started smoking and making crackling noises. The smell was horrible and definitely toxic (hurray for wearing masks?). Luckily Sarah knew what to do – thanks Sarah!”

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