Grad Convocation 2024

On October 28 and November 1, we celebrated the conferral of our graduate students' MA and PhD degrees. This marks the culmination of hard work, dedication, and perseverance. Your achievements are a testament to your determination––we are incredibly proud of each and every one of you!

Our newly minted PhDs:

• Angelika Kiss
• Emilia Melara
• Virgilio Partida Penalva
• Maida Percival

We even had our own hooding ceremony! Angelika was hooded by her supervisor, Michela Ippolito (faculty).

Our new MAs:

• Louis Careri
• Laura Escobar
• Siyi Fan
• Fredrik Gao
• Olanrewaju Samuel
• Mechelle Wu
• Aliya Zhaksybek
  
  

Kelly, Dave, Naomi, Keir, Michela, Nathan, Angelika, Pocholo, and Emily

Guillaume Thomas (Graduate Coordinator) giving a toast

Naomi Nagy (Department Chair) congratulating our grads

Thank you to everyone (colleagues, friends, and family) who celebrated with us! And once again, a huge congratulations to our grads!

The Department of Linguistics celebrates the start of the 2024-25 academic year!

On Friday, September 13, 2024, UofT linguists participated in an all-day event celebrating the start of the new academic year and, more importantly, welcoming new members to the department!

The day began with breakfast in the department lounge. Folks mingled around and numerous faculty members and students showcased their research posters. 

Keir Moulton (Graduate Chair) and Naomi Nagy (Department Chair) gave their welcome remarks. Keir reminded us that we also work on Fridays: we participate in research groups and learn new things; and we catch-up with colleagues as part of community building. Naomi then introduced the new cohort of MA and PhD students as well as our post-doctoral fellows.

Outside the lounge, students and faculty teamed up to play bowling! Congratulations to Derek Denis (faculty) and Nick Haggarty (PhD student), the winning team! 

The day progressed with a series of lightning talks in various research groups and labs. We got to hear about recent and on-going work in the (H)LVC, CSoL, Syntax, Semantics, PHON, and LDDR groups. We also got to see the Phonetics Lab, Experimental Syntax-Semantics Lab, the TLC lab, and the newly renovated grad space! After lunch, we got to hear from some faculty members about their research interests and works-in-progress.

We capped off our second-annual Kick-off Day with a welcome party at The Pilot! Department members enjoyed an afternoon filled with food, drinks, and laughter. 

Thank you to everyone (especially our administrative staff) for making this day a success!

Graduation Lunch & Eclipse

 

How often do we have 2 such exciting things on the same day? 

On April 8, about 20 of our amazing undergrads joined us for a delicious lunch, a live feed to astronomical experts sharing their wisdom about eclipses, and we all got to see the sun disappear (behind the moon, behind the clouds, whatever...). 

Congratulations to our undergrads completing their Majors, Minor and Specialist POSts in linguistics!!!

Here are some highlights from the day:

the actual eclipse (Nathan's pic)

a cake eclipse -- watch the chocolate pass over the lemon, then disappear (Naomi's pic)

Nathan rocks his solar glasses

Picture-in-picture (Craig's pic)

And, if that's not enough, here's more from The Bulletin Brief <bulletin.brief@utoronto.ca>:

Skies darkened and temperatures dropped as the solar eclipse swept across U of T’s three campuses Monday, bringing community members together to marvel at the celestial spectacle. See how the day unfolded through the lenses of photographers at the university.

Holiday Cocktail Party 2023

Some scenes from our holiday party a few weeks ago. Students and faculty gathered to mark the end of the semester with good food, cocktails, fun party games, and live music.  

Thanks to everyone who helped clean up. 

Although Sahar didn't make it onto the board, we thank her too!

 

(H)LVC Fondue Party 2023

 The Language Variation and Change (LVC) Research Group and RAs from the Heritage Language Variation and Change Project (HLVC) celebrated the coming of winter with their annual fondue party. 

There was fondue...

Alexei & Hassan prep baguettes

Nick's cheese is the stretchiest; Kirill, Siyi and Laura miss it, though!

Julian debates diverse chocolate desserts.

 

a Draw a Snowperson on your head contest...

Kirill shows us how it's done.

Our art.

and great gifts exchanged (and exchanged and exchanged) in the Yankee Swap!

Patrick and the holiday hat

Hassan and the holiday hat

Grad Convocation 2023!

November 6 & 7, 2023, we were delighted to celebrate the receipt of graduate degrees by so many of our PhD students.

Thanks to Kelly (right), Camille, Kai and Mary for making our lounge beautiful and welcoming!

Newly minted PhDs - Congrats to these Doctors! Jessica Denniss Radu Craioveanu Frederick Gietz Andrei Munteanu Pocholo Umbal
	New MAs - Congratulations! Samira Ghanbarnejadnaeini Nicholas Haggarty Lee Jiang Shabri Kapoor Jack Mahlmann Anujin Munkhbat Mikayla Oliver Julia Petrosov Mikenzie Sandy Haili Su Katherine Sung Yixin Wang

Keir toasts the MAs

Pomp & Circumstance for the Hood-ees

Guillaume, Naomi & Derek bask in reflected glory.	Cake and more cake	MAs and friends
Jess hooded by Elizabeth	Radu hooded by Nathan	Pocholo hooded by Naomi
Pocholo hooded!	Pocholo celebrates in front of (Con Hall and) the CN Tower	Myrto sports a matching purse

Plus our own Elizabeth Cowper weighed in on an important part of the ceremony!