WHASC

Lisa Matthewson (Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of British Columbia) will give a colloquium at 4.00 p.m. on Friday, November 20, in 202 Humanities One. Her title is: “Are all evidentials epistemic modals, after all?” For the abstract, visit here.

The Linguistics Department and its Linguistics Research Center will host the second meeting of California Universities Semantics and Pragmatics (CUSP 2) on Saturday, November 21, in the Stevenson Fireside Lounge. For more information, including the program, visit here. Everyone who plans to attend and has not already contacted the CUSP organizers should get in touch with Debbie Belville (debbiebe@ucsc.edu).

The S-Circle will meet from 11.00 a.m. until 12.00 noon on Monday of next week, November 23. Adrian Brasoveanu will talk about some of his recent work. Please note unusual day and time of this meeting!

Sandy Chung has been elected Vice-President and President-Elect of the Linguistic Society of America. Her three-year term of office, which begins in January 2010, includes one year as Vice-President, one year as President, and one year as Past President. For a list of past LSA presidents going back to 1925, visit here. At the same time, alum Eric Potsdam (Ph.D. 1996, now Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of Florida and Linguistics Program Director, National Science Foundation) has been elected to a three-year term as an at-large member of the Executive Committee. Eric’s election means that beginning in January, three of the Executive Committee’s six at-large (elected) members will have UCSC Ph.D.’s: the others are Chris Potts (Ph.D. 2003, now Associate Professor of Linguistics, Stanford) and Rachel Walker (Ph.D. 1998, now Associate Professor of Linguistics, USC), both of whom were elected to the Executive Committee last year. Congratulations!

Every year the Humanities Division makes available a small number of Humanities Undergraduate Research Awards (HUGRA) to support and encourage undergraduate research in the humanities. Up to 10 awards ($500 each) are made each year. Any project involving research in any of the humanities disciplines is eligible for consideration. Proposals must be for research to be performed during the 2009-2010 academic year; they will be judged on the basis of intellectual substance, promise of results, preparation of the applicant, and feasibility. The top proposal will also receive the Bertha N. Melkonian prize (an additional $500). To view the application requirements and download the application form, visit here. The deadline for applications, including a letter of support from a faculty sponsor, is December 7, 2009.

The call for papers has been issued for the 46th annual meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, which will be held April 8-10, 2010. The conference will include a general session and parassesions devoted to Reevaluating the Semantics-Pragmatics Interface, Multilingualism, and Probabilistic Theories of Grammar. Alum Chris Barker (Ph.D. 1991, now Professor of Linguistics, NYU) will be one of two invited speakers at the parasession on the semantics-pragmatics interface. Alum Jason Riggle (M.A. 1999, now Assistant Professor of Linguistics, University of Chicago) will be one of two invited speakers at the parasession on probabilistic theories of grammar. For submission guidelines for the abstracts, go here. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 11.59 p.m. CST on Friday, January 15, 2010.