Students and faculty working on our major research project, MI Diaries, were at the MSU Science Festival again this year. We talked with community members of all ages at the STEAM Expo Day on April 5, 2025. Read more about it at the MI Diaries website. MI Diaries team member Hamlin Teng asks a visitor if she says pop or soda.
We're hiring! Come and work in the Sociolinguistics Lab under the direction of Dr. Betsy Sneller. Position description The successful applicant will join the MI Diaries project, which is collecting sociolinguistic data from Michiganders across the state. The position primarily will be in helping the MI Diaries project develop partnerships with middle and high school classrooms across the state, developing lesson plans for grades 5-10 based on MI Diaries data (in partnership with WGVU PBS Station), supporting project maintenance, and developing reports or manuscripts about community outreach in collaboration with the principal investigator (Betsy Sneller). We especially invite applicants with a record of success in both sociolinguistics and K-12 Education, as working with schools is a critical component of this position. There are no required teaching responsibilities for the position. Important dates Applications accepted from April 25, 2025 onwards. Review of applications will begin June 1, 2025. The position will remain open until filled. More information See the full position description at MSU Careers.
Undergraduate members of the Sociolinguistics Lab and/or the MI Diaries project team demonstrated their research skills at MSU's 2025 University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) on April 11, 2025. Presenters included: Sabrina Ruiz, Who's afraid of the Big Bad C*nt? Changes in offensiveness across generations. Senior thesis project supervised by Dr. Betsy Sneller. Sara Kirkman, Emoji and age: Exploring age-based variations in expressing emotions via emojis Senior thesis project supervised by Dr. Betsy Sneller. Xhanna Travina, A/B testing for engaging users with Knowledge Commons newsletter emails Mentor: Larissa Babak (College of Arts and Letters) Hannah Choi, Interpreting the simple past as the present perfect (with Jaina Kittle, Kay Humpert, Mason Dellot) Mentors: Alan Munn, Cristina Schmitt (Linguistics) - Language Acquisition Lab Ezekiel Brown, Verb agreement with non-DP subjects Mentors: Alan Munn, Louis Konkoly (Linguistics) - Language Acquisition Lab Sabrina Ruiz with her UURAF poster Xhanna Travina with her UURAF poster.