Thursday, July 25, 2013

Let Me In!



Over the past four weeks, I've studied linguistics of all kinds at the University of Michigan for the Linguistic Society of America's Summer Institute. I think perhaps most people would be bored by my discoveries, but they amount to an exciting conclusion. In graduate school, I want to pursue one of two paths in linguistics:

The first is ASL sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics studies how variation in lexicon, pronunciation, and other linguistic features helps create and constantly renegotiate our personas in different social situations. For example, think of the words you use and how you speak in public at a presentation or with your romantic partner. Why do these different social situations present such different manners of speaking? What are we trying to communicate about ourselves? So I want to do the same thing many linguists do with English or other languages, and apply that to ASL. For example, how do Deaf speakers identify themselves as "Deaf from New York" or "Deaf and gay" in their speech?

Believe it or not, this is Michigan. Not England. 
The second interest I discovered at the Institute is forensic linguistics. I want to specialize in speaker identification and linguistic profiling. I have some ideas about how to conduct research in this field that I don't think anyone else has considered, so I hope to explore that quite a bit more.

In any case, the point is that I had a wonderful time at the Institute. I met some wonderful, intelligent, quirky people who never once asked me how many languages I speak as a linguist. They taught me new ASL signs, gave me insights to the Russian queer community, and taught me about speaker identification in calls of distress. They all deserve to become prominent in their fields.

What talk of Michigan is complete without some graffiti?
Like all good things, however, the Institute ended. I got a ride to the airport, obnoxiously large orange suitcase in hand. I had a layover in Chicago, and then off to London!

Or so I thought.

Once I got to Chicago, I was informed that my next flight was cancelled due to mechanical issues. On the bright side, they paid for my food that evening, a cab, my hotel room that night, the next morning's cab, and food while I waited for the rebooked flight. The down side is that I didn't get to go to London a day early like I'd wanted.

They eventually let me into the country, though. That's gotta count for something.
 

Returning to England felt like coming back to my room after being in college for a few months. Most of the things I remember are in their proper place--King's College, Benet's Ice Cream, my old flat on Thompson's Lane--and others have changed. A woman I used to chat with at the Market wasn't there when I visited, and some other buildings are now under construction. But it's so similar to my memories that I'm shocked. I remember where most of my favorite clubs and restaurants are.

The lovely King's College facade, forever one of my favorite landmarks to photograph in Cambridge.


On the other hand, this program differs from PKP in many other ways. First of all, we only have about 25 people this year. We come from all over: Malaysia, France, Norway, and Australia at least (though of course Americans remain the majority). So far, they seem like talented, thoughtful individuals with great writing potential. We have guest lectures by prominent editors, biographers, and others twice a week. We meet for supervisions to workshop our work biweekly as well. We have key themed lectures as well, from the program coordinators Richard Beard and Fiona Sampson. So far, the lectures have given me valuable insights on my writing.


My lovely room! It's large, just like last year :)

A picture of The Anchor bar on the Cam, taken from La Granta bar. You can't see the mosquitoes, but they were all over.


2 comments:

  1. Round Two! Where are you living this time?

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    1. This program is entirely based in Pembroke, so I'm right next to the Pembroke Cafe. It's great, because I'm on the bottom floor and don't have to trudge up all those stairs every day!

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