In the Media

Claire Bowern was a panelist recently discussing remote fieldwork, community support, and ethics, as part of the University of Melbourne’s “Linguistics in the Pub” series. Approximately 100 participants from all over the world got together to listen to reflections about Covid-19 based changes to field practices, what linguists can do to most effectively support the communities they work with, and the additional ethical challenges that arise when working remotely. The panelists discussed a range of field situations.

Yale will offer two undergraduate courses next semester in American Sign Language — the first to be offered for course credit.

Noah Macey (Linguistics ‘09) reports on a new pilot American Sign Language (ASL) program at Yale, with courses taught by Jessica Tanner. The pilot program begins in the spring, when the university will offer two ASL classes through the Linguistics Department, which petitioned the Language Study Committee last spring for the course’s approval.

A lesson by Claire Bowern on the basics of historical linguistics and the origins of the English language has been turned into a TedEd animation. Watch and listen to the animation to see English has evolved through generations of speakers. (Director: Patrick Smith; Narrator: Addison Anderson.)

Emily Finn (Yale ‘09) published a NYTimes article called “How I learned to stop worrying and love linguistics”.

Yale’s Linguistics Department, in conjunction with Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Office of Student Development and Diversity (OGSDD) hosted a free webinar for prospective graduate students. Students and faculty from the department discussed the admissions process, life in the department, research opportunities, and living in New Haven. The webinar was recorded and is now available for later viewing here. 

As a Presidential Visiting Fellow, Stephanie has spent the past year at Yale teaching the Mohegan language and raising interest in language revitalization.

Incoming Lecturer Stephanie Fielding discussed the extinction and rebirth of the Mohegan language in an interview with Connecticut Public Radio.

Joint work by Professor Claire Bowern on the geographical distribution of Australian languages was featured in The Conversation.

The crossword puzzle that appears in today’s New York Times is the creation of senior linguistics major Tom McCoy, a member of the Yale Grammatical Diversity Project.

Their paper, ”Phylogenetic approach to the evolution of color term systems,” was also featured in this week’s YaleNews.

Earlier this month Professor Steve Anderson gave a public lecture titled “The Place of Human Language in the Animal World“ to inaugurate the new “Language and Communication” Research Network at the University of Geneva.

Professor Raffaella Zanuttini and Associate Professor Claire Bowern​ have recently written op-ed articles for a number of media outlets.

ABC Goldfields runs a story on Andy Zhang’s fieldwork on Tjupan, an extension of his work in the Yale Linguistics Grammar Group.