MI Diaries, run by the Sociolinguistics Lab at MSU, partnered with Inquiry Arts as part of the STEAM Expo Day at the MSU Science Festival on April 1st and 2nd, 2023. We invited Michigan residents and visitors to reflect on their lives, curiosities, and hopes for the future while learning about sociolinguistic research. In addition to providing information about MI Diaries, we shared some of our featured participant stories with with Science Festival attendees and welcomed them to record their own stories!
One of our lab co-directors, Dr. Suzanne Wagner, received a grant to spend a month in University of Duisberg-Essen in Germany. Congratulations Suzanne!
Jack received their B.A. in Linguistics at Michigan State University in 2021, and is currently a 2nd year MA student in the Linguistics program at MSU. Their research focuses primarily on sociophonetic variation in nonbinary speakers.
Socio Lab member Mikayla Thompson (Linguistics major) has been accepted for a competitive NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) opportunity this summer.
Mikayla shared why she chose this program and her goals and hopes:
“This opportunity to study language revitalization methods at the University of Oregon stood out to me initially because of the particular nature of the classes and research. The focus on language revitalization processes in relation to my compiled knowledge of linguistics is exactly what I would like to do post-graduation. I intend to utilize the knowledge presented in these classes and fieldwork to better inform myself of methods of preserving and reviving Indigenous American languages. As a descendent of the Cherokee Nation, I know quite intimately the degree to which language repression and subsequent language endangerment has influenced Indigenous communities, and what it means for the future. I hope to apply what is learned at the University of Oregon to my own communities, so that I may more deeply familiarize myself with my ancestral language, Cherokee, and to eventually pass it down to others in my communities.”
