Admin Roles
Anne-Michelle Tessier
Anne-Michelle Tessier
Associate Professor | Associate Department Head
emailam.tessier@ubc.ca
location_onTotem Field Studios 106
I am primarily a theoretical phonologist who studies acquisition. When I have to put keywords on an abstract, they usually include “constraint-based” and/or “learning algorithms”, but I also work on things like lexical avoidance, U-shaped development, L2 production and perception in childhoo...Read more
Carla Hudson Kam
Educational Background
BA, Simon Fraser University, 1996
PhD, University of Rochester, 2003
Research Interests
First and second language acquisition, developmental language production and processing, gesture and language learning and processing, non-linguistic constraints on langua...Read more
Garrett Nicolai
Garrett Nicolai
Assistant Professor of Teaching | MDS-CL Program Director
Research Area
Computational LinguisticsResearch Area
Computational Linguistics
Hotze Rullmann
Hotze Rullmann
Associate Professor | Graduate Advisor
phone604 822 1399
location_onTotem Field Studios 128
Research Area
SemanticsResearch Area
Semantics
Kathleen Hall
Kathleen Hall
Associate Professor | Undergraduate Advisor
emailkathleen.hall@ubc.ca
phone604 822 5404
location_onTotem Field Studios 126
Research Area
Corpus-Based Research | Laboratory Phonology | Phonetics | Phonology | Signed LanguagesMy research focuses on the formational patterns of languages (phonology) using techniques from a wide variety of areas, including interactions between phonology and the physical articulation and acoustic or visual properties of formational units (phonetics), the processing of such units in the brain...Read more
Research Area
Corpus-Based Research | Laboratory Phonology | Phonetics | Phonology | Signed Languages
Molly Babel
Molly Babel
Professor | EDI Chair
emailmolly.babel@ubc.ca
phone604 822 6322
location_onTotem Field Studios 211
Broadly, I am interested in speech perception and production, and there is a strong theme of cross-linguistic and cross-dialectal inquiry in my work. More specifically, my research program focuses on the role of experience and exposure to phonetic and phonological knowledge, how social knowledge may...Read more
Tenure Stream
Anne-Michelle Tessier
Anne-Michelle Tessier
Associate Professor | Associate Department Head
emailam.tessier@ubc.ca
location_onTotem Field Studios 106
I am primarily a theoretical phonologist who studies acquisition. When I have to put keywords on an abstract, they usually include “constraint-based” and/or “learning algorithms”, but I also work on things like lexical avoidance, U-shaped development, L2 production and perception in childhoo...Read more
Bryan Gick
Ph.D., Yale University, 1999
M.Phil., Yale University, 1997
M.A., Yale University, 1995
B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1992
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow
Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC)
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancem...Read more
Carla Hudson Kam
Educational Background
BA, Simon Fraser University, 1996
PhD, University of Rochester, 2003
Research Interests
First and second language acquisition, developmental language production and processing, gesture and language learning and processing, non-linguistic constraints on langua...Read more
Christopher Hammerly
Christopher Hammerly
Assistant Professor
I am a descendent of the White Earth Nation in Minnesota, and much of my work focuses on understanding and documenting my ancestral language Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe). I use a variety of methods to understand the cognitive representations and processes underpinning human knowledge of syntax (sentenc...Read more
Douglas Pulleyblank
Educational Background
1977, B.A., University of Ibadan
1983, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Garrett Nicolai
Garrett Nicolai
Assistant Professor of Teaching | MDS-CL Program Director
Research Area
Computational LinguisticsResearch Area
Computational Linguistics
Gunnar Hansson
Henry Davis
Henry Davis
Professor
emailhenry.davis@ubc.ca
phone604 822 8948
location_onTotem Field Studios 202
Research Area
Field Linguistics | Salish | Syntax | Syntax-Morphology Interface | Syntax-Phonology Interface | Syntax-Semantics Interface | Tsimshianic | WakashanMy background is in language acquisition, but for the past twenty years my research has focused on the critically endangered indigenous languages of BC, in particular, those of the Salish, Wakashan, and Tsimshianic families.
I have been working since 1992 on the Northern Interior Salish language ...Read more
Research Area
Field Linguistics | Salish | Syntax | Syntax-Morphology Interface | Syntax-Phonology Interface | Syntax-Semantics Interface | Tsimshianic | Wakashan
Hotze Rullmann
Hotze Rullmann
Associate Professor | Graduate Advisor
phone604 822 1399
location_onTotem Field Studios 128
Research Area
SemanticsResearch Area
Semantics
Isabel Papadimitriou
Isabel Papadimitriou
Assistant Professor (Incoming September 2025)
I work on understanding and defining the capabilities of large language models in relation to the human language system.
I am especially interested in pursuing an interdisciplinary research program, combining computational empirical machine learning methods with theories of human language. My pri...Read more
Jian Zhu
Jian Zhu
Assistant Professor
emailjian.zhu@ubc.ca
I am primarily interested in spoken language processing, natural language processing and computational social science, with a focus on unsupervised/semi-supervised methods for speech segmentation/alignment, multilingual speech processing, spoken information retrieval and the language dynamics in onl...Read more
Kathleen Hall
Kathleen Hall
Associate Professor | Undergraduate Advisor
emailkathleen.hall@ubc.ca
phone604 822 5404
location_onTotem Field Studios 126
Research Area
Corpus-Based Research | Laboratory Phonology | Phonetics | Phonology | Signed LanguagesMy research focuses on the formational patterns of languages (phonology) using techniques from a wide variety of areas, including interactions between phonology and the physical articulation and acoustic or visual properties of formational units (phonetics), the processing of such units in the brain...Read more
Research Area
Corpus-Based Research | Laboratory Phonology | Phonetics | Phonology | Signed Languages
Lisa Matthewson
Lisa Matthewson
Professor and Distinguished University Scholar
phone604 822 2976
location_onTotem Field Studios 204
Professor and Distinguished University Scholar
Ph.D., University of British Columbia, 1996
Determiner Systems and Quantificational Strategies: Evidence from Salish
(Co-winner of the Prize for Outstanding Dissertation in Language, Logic and Computation, European Association for Logic, Language a...Read more
M. Ryan Bochnak
M. Ryan Bochnak
Assistant Professor
emailryan.bochnak@ubc.ca
I am a linguist and fieldworker. My research interests lie mainly in linguistic semantics, with a strong focus on cross-linguistic variation, semantic fieldwork, and language documentation. Topics that I have worked on include gradability and comparatives, tense and aspect, modality, complementation...Read more
Marcin Morzycki
I’m a semanticist working on semantics and its interface with syntax. Most of my research has had something to do with modification in one way or another, but it’s never been obvious to me that that actually constitutes a natural class of phenomena rather than a convenient rubric under which to ...Read more
Márton Sóskuthy
Márton Sóskuthy
Associate Professor
location_onTotem Field Studios 203
I obtained a combined MA in English Language and Literature / Theoretical Linguistics at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest in 2009, and a PhD in Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh in 2013. I was a lecturer in phonetics and phonology at the University of York from 2013 to 2018.
I am ...Read more
Molly Babel
Molly Babel
Professor | EDI Chair
emailmolly.babel@ubc.ca
phone604 822 6322
location_onTotem Field Studios 211
Broadly, I am interested in speech perception and production, and there is a strong theme of cross-linguistic and cross-dialectal inquiry in my work. More specifically, my research program focuses on the role of experience and exposure to phonetic and phonological knowledge, how social knowledge may...Read more
Muhammad Abdul-Mageed
Muhammad Abdul-Mageed
Associate Professor | Canada Research Chair
location_onTotem Field Studios 224
I am an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning in Linguistics & the School of Information (joint), and Computer Science (Associate Member) at The University of British Columbia. My areas of research interest are Natural Language Processi...Read more
Rose-Marie Déchaine
Rose-Marie Déchaine
Professor | Chair of the African Studies Minor
phone604 822 6466
location_onTotem Field Studios 207
Education
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, PhD (1993)
Université du Québec à Montréal, MA (1986)
University of Alberta, BA (1984)
Strang Burton
Strang Burton
Associate Professor of Teaching
emailStrang.Burton@ubc.ca
location_onTotem Field Studios 205
Ph.D. Linguistics - Rutgers University, 1995
M.A. Linguistics - University of Toronto, 1989
B.A. Philosophy - University of Toronto, 1984
Lecturers
Amanda Cardoso
Amanda Cardoso
Lecturer
My research program overall seeks to understand language variation and change and the relationship to the historical socio-cultural contexts. Within this program I have generally focused on three main themes: 1. language variation and change with reference to changes is populations (e....Read more
Jahurul Islam
Jahurul Islam
Lecturer | Interim Director, ISRL
emailjahurul.islam@ubc.ca
location_onRoom 4, Integrated Speech Research Lab (ISRL), 6368 Stores Rd, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4
Articulatory and Acoustic phonetics; Experimental phonetics; Laboratory methods; Machine learning
Sessionals & Adjuncts
Frederick Newmeyer
Frederick Newmeyer
Adjunct Professor
emailfjn@uw.edu
My interests are syntactic theory, history of linguistics, linguistic typology, and language evolution. I’ve published 12 books and over 200 articles on these topics. I’ve been President of the Linguistic Society of America (and am now its Secretary-Treasurer), as well as being currently Vice Pr...Read more
Gloria Mellesmoen
Gloria Mellesmoen
PhD Candidate | Sessional Lecturer
Research Area
Field Linguistics | Historical Linguistics | Phonetics | Phonology | Salish | SociolinguisticsAbout Me: I am pursuing a PhD in linguistics with an interest in phonology, non-concatenative morphology, and historical/comparative linguistics. My dissertation research focuses on reduplication across all 23 Salish languages, drawing upon primary fieldwork and archival materials. My research focu...Read more
Research Area
Field Linguistics | Historical Linguistics | Phonetics | Phonology | Salish | Sociolinguistics
Nigel Howard
Research Area
Signed Languages
Emeriti & Former Faculty
Guy Carden
Guy Carden
Associate Professor (retired)
emailcardenguy@gmail.com
Education
Harvard University
AB cum laude, Linguistics and Mathematics (1966) PhD, Linguistics (1970)
Employment History
Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, Bedford, Massachusetts Research Scientist, Linguistics (1969-71)
Yale University, Department of Linguistics Vis...Read more
Joseph Stemberger
Educational Background
B.A., the Pennsylvania State University, 1977
M.A., University of California, San Diego, 1979
Ph.D., University of California, San Diego, 1982
Dissertation: [The Lexicon in a Model of Language Production]
Academic Positions
1982-1984 Sloan Postdoctoral Fe...Read more
Martina Wiltschko
I am on a leave of absence from UBC. I have taken up a research position with ICREA at UPF. If you need to get in touch with me, please contact me at martina.wiltschko@icrea.cat.
Educational Background:
Phd, MA University of Vienna
Dissertation: ID's in Syntax ...Read more