Congratulations to Dr. Kaili Vesik on Her Successful PhD Defense!
The Department of Linguistics is delighted to announce that Kaili Vesik has successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled Gradual Error-Driven Learning and Typology of Finnic Vowel Interactions on June 26, 2025. Supervised by Anne-Michelle Tessier, with committee members Gunnar Hansson and Kathleen Currie Hall, Dr. Vesik’s dissertation investigates the acquisition of complex vowel patterns in Finnic […]
PhD Student Julia Schillo Co-Authors Study Linking Indigenous Language Revitalization to Improved Health Outcomes
We are delighted to share that Julia Schillo, a PhD student in our Department of Linguistics, is a co-author of a groundbreaking new study highlighting the positive impacts of Indigenous language revitalization on health and well-being. Published in Language and Health, the study synthesizes findings from over 260 academic and community-based sources across Canada, the […]
Zara Khalaji Successfully Defends MA Thesis on Learning Morpho-phonological Alternations
We are pleased to announce that Zara Khalaji has successfully defended her MA thesis in the Department of Linguistics. Her thesis, titled “Learning Morpho-phonological Alternations like French Liaison: An Artificial Language Learning Experiment”, investigates how adult learners acquire complex morpho-phonological patterns using an artificial language learning paradigm. Zara’s research explores the challenges posed by interface […]
Now Released: Sign Language Phonetic Annotator / Analyzer (SLP-AA) v0.1.0
We’re thrilled to announce the first official release of the Sign Language Phonetic Annotator / Analyzer (SLP-AA) software, version 0.1.0! This new tool is designed to support phonetic transcription and phonological analysis of sign languages—an exciting development for researchers, educators, and students working in the field of sign language linguistics. This release represents a major […]
ISRL projects featured by Acoustical Society of America
We’re excited to share that two upcoming conference presentations from our Integrated Speech Research Lab (ISRL) have been highlighted in the “Lay Language Paper” section of the Acoustical Society of America’s website for the 187th Meeting. Check them out below: 1. Listen to the Music: We Rely on Musical Genre to Determine Singers’ Accents Authors: […]
Yadong Liu defends his PhD
We are happy to share that Yadong Liu has successfully defended his PhD yesterday (30 Oct). Following are some details about this Dissertation. Title: “Integrating Posture Control in Speech Models” Supervisor: Bryan Gick Committee: Márton Sóskuthy & Sidney Fels (Electrical & Computer Engineering) Also participating in the defense: Gunnar Hansson, Jean-Sébastien Blouin (Kinesiology), and Romeo […]
UBC Linguistics at Sinn und Bedeutung 29, Italy
Happy to share that UBC Linguistics is well-represented at Sinn und Bedeutung 29, happening right now at the Consorzio Universitario Mediterraneo Orientale in Noto, Italy. Presentations with UBC-affiliated authors include: • Ana Laura Arrieta Zamudio & Ryan Bochnak: Conjectural questions in Ktunaxa as canonical questions • Ana Laura Arrieta Zamudio: Epistemic temporal interactions and judge […]
Mitchi and Starr selected as Public Scholar 2023/2024
The UBC Public Scholars Initiative (PSI) supports “UBC doctoral students whose research extended beyond the academy, and beyond traditional disciplinary approaches, to have a tangible impact for the public good through collaborative, action-oriented, and/or creative forms of scholarship in their dissertation work.” We are especially proud to say that *two* of this year’s PSI cohort […]
Stanley Nam wins best student presentation award at ICKL 23
Happy to share that our PhD student Stanley Nam has won a “best student presentation” award at the 23rd Biennial Meeting of The International Circle of Korean Linguistics (ICKL 23; see https://sites.google.com/view/ickl2023/home), for his paper “Unsupervised learning of sub-lexica in Korean.” Congratulations, Stanley!
Raiane Salles’ successful PhD defense
Congratulations to the new Dr. Raiane Salles, for a successful PhD defense today! The thesis is entitled “Functional categorization parameters: Argumenthood with functional heads other than D in Carioca Brazilian Portuguese and Pirahã.” Dr. Salles was supervised by Dr. Lisa Matthewson, with committee members Dr. Hotze Rullmann and Dr. Martina Wiltschko (Universitat Pompeu Fabra). Also […]