Welcoming the Linguistics Dept.'s New Social Media Coordinator

    WHITL? has a new admin! 

Hi everyone, my name is Natasha Vujičić, and I’m the Linguistics Department’s Social Media Coordinator for this year. I’m beyond excited to start writing and bringing my vision for the blog to life! 

A bit about me:

I’m a third year undergraduate Linguistics specialist, with a huge passion for phonetics, phonology, Slavic languages, semantics, and heritage languages (although syntax is near and dear to my heart as well). I’ve been obsessed with language, speech, and sound since I was a child, and I treasure the fact that my passions have manifested so clearly in my studies at UofT. I love music, art, backpacking, and reading. My favourite book is The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, and my favourite bands/musicians are Pink Floyd, Yes, Fela Kuti, Nina Simone, and Kendrick Lamar. Feel free to send me music/book recommendations!

My goals for this year are as follows:

a. I want to involve student and faculty input as much as possible. I want to hear your ideas, feedback, and suggestions, because this is your blog! What’s the best way to get news communicated to you? What topics do you like getting covered on the blog? The best way to find out is to ask. I’ll be surveying students and faculty later this month for ideas, but please email me any and all of your thoughts (and fill out the survey below).

b. Visually re-work the blog and social media. I want to create a stronger identity for the department in regards to our digital presence, and I think creating a visually cohesive presence can facilitate that process!

c. More consistent posting on our Instagram and other social media. What’s the point of having a department social media if not to spread the word about department news? I want more people in the loop about events and opportunities, and posting consistently and punctually is critical. 

I’m stoked to get started on the blog and hear all of your wonderful ideas for it. That being said, I’ve set up a survey for WHITL? readers to respond to with feedback, ideas, suggestions, and anything else blog/social media-related. This form will be active throughout the year. There’s so much I want to do and only so much time, so contact me sooner rather than later! Should you want a blog post published on a noteworthy event, publication, or other news, please feel free to reach out. The same applies for our other social media – if you’d like a linguistics-related event notice posted, I’m the one to ask. Thanks for reading and I look forward to connecting with all of you!

utlinblog@gmail.com

natasha.vujicic@mail.utoronto.ca (I’ll respond quickest here)

@uoftlinguistics on Instagram, Twitter/X, and Facebook

Survey link: https://forms.office.com/r/9rJ5MQjRw3

The Linguistic Dept. Gets a New Social Media Coordinator!

The Linguistics Department at UofT has just acquired a new Social Media Coordinator for the summer, and if you're confused by the sharp increase in exclamation point usage among WHITL blog posts, it's my fault!

Hello everyone, my name is Marija Buzanin, and I am a first-year undergraduate student in the Linguistics Department. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone reading this and reporting on your wins.

Some fun facts about me: I speak 3 languages, love Python (for coding), and am learning Spanish. My favourite aspect of linguistics is semiotics, and I have just enrolled in the minor program offered by the department while I study something else as a major - I am open to recommendations. 

While holding this position, I aim to accomplish several goals, all of which I hope will contribute to an informative, accurate, aesthetically-pleasing, and up-to-date social media presence:

1. At least 4 spotlight interviews on faculty, students, staff and their research, 1 of which has already been conducted (keep an eye out!)

2. Effective and interesting reporting on events held within the department, and out-of-town events in which UofT linguists are participating. 

3. A 10% increase in social media following and successful collaboration with other UofT pages, important for increased awareness among undergraduate/incoming students

4. 1-2 guest writers’ posts on the blog/website: this would be great for interaction with our upper-year students

I am excited to celebrate your successes for the larger UofT community to celebrate with you. My (virtual) door is always open should you have a noteworthy event on which you would like me to report, a fun update on your personal successes, and/or if you’d be interested in having a spotlight on your research and work.

A short and friendly reminder that this is the only active email for the blog: utlinblog@gmail.com.

Please direct your communication here. If you are looking for a quicker reply, try my UofT email: marija.buzanin@mail.utoronto.ca. 

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to connecting with all of you in the future!

Julien Carrier goes to Kentucky

Dr. Julien Carrier, who earned his PhD in our Department in 2021, and then held a postdoc position at UQAM (working with former UofT student Richard Compton), is excited to be starting a tenure-track position in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Kentucky.  

He says, "This is a great place for me because people there really like the fact that my research is in socio-syntax."

We wish him all the best in his new job!  Félicitations!

Congratulations, Paulina!

Congratulations to Paulina Łyskawa (MA 2015, now at the University of Maryland), who has accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the Arctic University of Norway to work on the project 'Experimental approaches to syntactic optionality' led by Bjørn Lundquist and Gillian Ramchand. Congratulations, Paulina - well-deserved!

Congratulations, Julien!

Congratulations to Julien Carrier (Ph.D. 2020), who is taking up a competitive SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship! He has recently joined the Université du Québec à Montréal to work under the supervision of UQAM faculty member Richard Compton (Ph.D. 2012), himself the recent recipient of an award for excellence in teaching, on morphosyntactic variation in varieties of Inuktitut. This will be quite the collaboration and is a thoroughly well-earned opportunity. Congratulations, Julien - and also Richard!

Congratulations, Phil!

Congratulations to Phil Howson (Ph.D. 2018, now at the University of Oregon), who has accepted a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship to undertake postdoctoral research in Europe. He will be spending the next two years at the Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft in Berlin, working on phonetic and phonological aspects of acquisition in multilingual Sorbian/German speakers under the supervision of Marzena Żygis. All the best, Phil, on this very exciting new opportunity in Germany!

Congratulations, Nayoun!

This month we bid a fond farewell, for the best possible reason, to Nayoun Kim (postdoc), who has accepted a tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English Literature and Language at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. She will be leaving Toronto shortly and beginning her new job at the end of February. Congratulations, Nayoun! We'll miss you around here, but we're so thrilled about your news. All the best!

Congratulations, Yining!

Congratulations to Yining Nie (MA 2015, now at New York University), who has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on the project 'Realizing Leibniz’s Dream: Child Languages as a Mirror of the Mind', co-directed by Artemis Alexiadou, Uli Sauerland, and Maria Teresa Guasti (on which one of the language consultants is our faculty member Suzi Lima). Congratulations, Yining, and all the best in Germany!

Congratulations, Nicholas!

Congratulations to Nicholas Rolle (MA 2010, now at Princeton University), who has accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft in Berlin!

Congratulations, Naomi!

Congratulations to Naomi Francis (MA 2014 and recent faculty), who has accepted a two-year postdoctoral research position in semantics in the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Oslo in Norway! We'll miss you around here, Naomi, but are absolutely delighted to hear your news. All the best and keep in touch!

Congratulations, Erin!

Congratulations to Erin Hall (Ph.D.), who has accepted a tenure-track position in linguistics and speech pathology at California State University, San Bernardino! We will miss Erin and her vibrant, positive presence, but are thrilled for her and CSUSB!

Congratulations, Karlien!

Congratulations to Karlien Franco (postdoc), who has accepted a postdoc position at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Leuven in Belgium. As of February 10, she will be working on the project 'Nephological Semantics' under the direction of Dirk Geeraerts. The endeavour will be using computational techniques to help ascertain where the boundaries are around sociolinguistic variables; Karlien's contributions will be focusing on the crossroads of lexical semantics and sociolinguistic variation.

We'll miss you, Karlien, but this opportunity is so well-earned. All the best, and keep in touch!

Congratulations, Avery!

Congratulations to Avery Ozburn (MA 2014), who recently defended her Ph.D. dissertation, "A target-oriented approach to neutrality in vowel harmony," at the University of British Columbia! Her supervisor was Gunnar Hansson, and Douglas Pulleyblank, Anne-Michelle Tessier, Molly Babel, and Patrick Moore made up the rest of the committee. Avery will now be beginning a well-deserved postdoctoral fellowship at McGill University. Congratulations, Dr. Ozburn!

Congratulations, Matt!

Congratulations to Matt Hunt Gardner (Ph.D. 2017, now at St. Mary's University), who has accepted a two-year postdoc position at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, on the project 'Variation is difficult, uniformity is easy - or is it? Complexity and choice in language production', under the direction of Benedikt Szmrecsanyi. All the best, Matt, on this new European adventure!

Congratulations, Shayna!

We're delighted to have heard that Shayna Gardiner (Ph.D. 2017, now at Receptiviti) has accepted a position as a Natural Language Processing Engineer at Dialpad. Congratulations, Shayna, and all the best from us as you begin this well-deserved new job!

Congratulations, Alex!

We are thrilled to have learned that Alexandra Motut (Ph.D.) has been offered and accepted the role of Executive Director of the Rotman Commerce Centre for Professional Skills (CPS) Alex has held multiple leadership positions for the WIT (Writing Instruction for TAs) program over many years. More recently, as a Project Manager for CPS with an emphasis on Curriculum and Educational Development, her initiatives have been thoroughly successful and very justifiably celebrated.

Congratulations, Alex, on this wonderful and entirely well-earned new position. Rotman is fortunate indeed!

Congratulations, Julie!

Congratulations to Julie Goncharov (Ph.D. 2015, currently at the University of Göttingen), who has been awarded a three-year postdoc at the University of Tromsø! Wonderful news, Julie, and a fantastically well-earned opportunity.

Congratulations, Amos!

A very fond farewell to Amos Key (faculty), who has accepted the new role of Vice-Provost, Indigenous Engagement at Brock University. This position is aimed at fostering ties between the university and Indigenous groups and individuals, and promoting engagement and awareness of Indigenous viewpoints, Indigenous rights, Indigenous languages, and ongoing settler-Indigenous relations on the Brock campus and beyond. We're absolutely delighted for you, Professor Key, and for Brock as well. All the best from all of us with your new position!

Congratulations, Na-Young!

Congratulations to Na-Young Ryu (Ph.D.), who has accepted a teaching-stream position as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Asian Studies at Pennsylvania State University! Na-Young, we are absolutely delighted; you've more than earned it. We'll miss you around here, but we're also so happy to know that Penn State gets to benefit from your many strengths.

Congratulations, Michelle!

We are delighted to have learned that Michelle Yuan (BA 2012, MA 2013) has accepted a tenure-track position in syntax at the University of California, San Diego. Michelle has been producing top-notch work on the syntax of Inuktitut since she was an undergraduate here. After finishing her MA, she went on to do a Ph.D. in syntax at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2018), followed by one year as a postdoc at the University of Chicago. We are so thrilled for you, Michelle – and for UCSD!