Regents approve Department of Linguistics

Regents approve Department of Linguistics

ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan Regents approved establishment of a Department of Linguistics in the College of Literature, Sciences, and the Arts (LSA) at their Sept. 21-22 meeting.

LSA created a Department of Linguistics in 1961 and it was reorganized into an interdisciplinary program in 1985. An external review of the program in 1999 cited its strength and said there would be “considerable advantages to restoring the unit to departmental status,” enhancing its ability to attract and retain outstanding faculty and students.

The original department focused on three areas: teaching English as a second language, instruction in a number of Asian languages, and teaching in such traditional core linguistic disciplines as phonetics and syntax.

“The 1985 reorganization was designed to strengthen linguistics at Michigan,” said U-M Provost Nancy Cantor, “through narrowing its focus to core methodological areas of linguistics and in linkages with other departments and programs through a series of joint appointments.”

Responsibility for language teaching was transferred to the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the English Language Institute was separated. A number of existing faculty appointments were converted into joint appointments with other units, including the Residential College, English Language Institute and the Departments of Germanic Languages and Asian Languages. New joint appointments were created between the Program in Linguistics and the Departments of English and Romance Languages.

Many of the Program’s faculty have joint appointments, but it also has 100 percent tenure-track positions. It recently added three internationally recognized faculty and several promising new assistant professors. Ten faculty members hold appointments in the Program and 11 have joint appointments.

“While linguistics traditionally has been a graduate discipline, the University’s program has created an innovative undergraduate concentration that integrates courses in psycholinguistics, anthropological linguistics and language-specific linguistics,” Cantor said. “It offers a number of freshman, sophomore and upper division courses. It currently enrolls the largest number of undergraduate concentrators of any linguistic program in the country, a strong graduate program and a faculty of considerable distinction.

“LSA Dean Shirley Neuman and the College’s Executive Committee support the recommendation for departmental status.”

RegentsNancy CantorDepartment of Asian Languages and CulturesNews and Information ServicesUniversity of Michigan