Utrecht Summer School 2012 @ Netherlands

During the last two weeks of August 2012, UiL OTS (Utrecht University) organizes six courses, directed at students interested in languages, linguistics and related fields:

- Introduction to Generative Syntax
- Statistics for Experimental Linguists
- Micro & Macro Variation in Language
- Psycholinguistics
- Bilingualism
- Evolution of Language

Courses are organizationally embedded in the Utrecht Summer School 2012. For a program overview and information on registration, lodging and social program, please check the Summer School website at:http://www.utrechtsummerschool.nl/

Deadline for registration is 15 June 2012.

JOB: English Language Linguistics, Lecturer @ University of York

The Department of Language and Linguistic Science is seeking to appoint a  Lecturer to contribute to research and teaching in the field of English  Language Linguistics from 1 September 2012 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The post is suitable for an early to mid-career linguist who is establishing, or has established, a track record of high quality publications in peer-reviewed journals and who is also committed to excellence in teaching and supervision. The person appointed will play a full part in the research, teaching, supervision and administration of the Department, with particular responsibility for teaching and supervising in the English Language and Linguistics degree. We welcome applications from scholars whose research and teaching interests include the linguistics of the English Language, and whose perspective will make a significant addition to our research cluster in Language Variation and Change.

Stanford Online: Natural Language Processing Course

Stanford University's Dan Jurafsky and Chris Manning are offering a free online Natural Language Processing class starting January 2012. As I mentioned in a previous post, I think there is great potential for cross-disciplinary collaboration between sociolinguists and computational linguistics. Anyway, here is the link to the sign up sheet: http://www.nlp-class.org/. Beware, you will not receive an email notification that you are registered... if it was like the machine learning course offered this fall, they should notify you about a week beforehand.

JOB: Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience @ University of Manchester

The School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Manchester is inviting applications for the position of Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience. This post might be of interest to colleagues with a cog neuro approach to psycholinguistics. I have copied a brief description of the position below. Further details can be found here: http://bit.ly/rRn25c

Unacceptable

This post in is support of my student, friend, and colleague Tom Zolot, who was one of many students who were victimized by police during a peaceful occupation of the UC Davis campus. This is unacceptable behavior which should never occur on any campus.


YOU TUBE video clip


An article with photos and videos of the event can be found here, caution as the footage is very disturbing: http://boingboing.net/2011/11/18/police-pepper-spraying-arrest.html


This is a video Tom took just after getting pepper-sprayed: http://youtu.be/doHxYGHo808


This is an email I received from Tom: "I lived through that violence and I did not have to...  The ASUCD Senate voted the night before this raid that our protest was peaceful and should not be interfered with by UC Davis officers.  The Administration did not honor our Senate's position.  ... I do not feel that having 37 tents on the quad warrants violence of this nature.  This is unacceptable behavior and the faculty should be standing in solidarity with the students."  

You have my full support Tom, and you are absolutely correct, peaceful protest does not warrant violence of any nature. I will stand in support of you [and your fellow protestors].

[update] - 

We joined the rally outside the press conference last night in support of our students and their right to general assembly and free speech. Unfortunately, we had to leave early because it started to rain and it was approaching Alexander's bedtime, but read and see what happened when our chancellor left the press conference: http://thesecondalarm.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/pepper-sprayed-student-leads/

I am very proud of Tom, a student of linguistics, and all the other UC Davis members who participated in this nonviolent protest. Tom is a stellar, dedicated student and a concerned citizen. He has been helping me out in the lab, working as a research assistant since early summer, and has been very instrumental in collecting neuroimaging and behavioral data for our experiments investigating the neural and cognitive bases underlying the perception of the social aspects of human speech. What a superb show of organized respect and tolerance... it makes me proud to be a graduate student among such fine students and faculty here at UC Davis. Good luck Tom, I will be joining the general assembly on the quad tomorrow at noon, and I urge my friends and colleagues to do the same.

Good coverage of the events can be found here http://thesecondalarm.wordpress.com/

Here is a nice list of 10 points concerning the protest: http://studentactivism.net/2011/11/20/ten-things-you-should-know-about-fridays-uc-davis-police-violence/

My fellow UC Davis linguistic graduate student Lewis Lawyer has this to say about the events of the past few days.

Here is a composition of videos from 4 different camera angles: http://waxy.org/2011/11/viewing_the_uc_davis_pepper_spraying_from_multiple_angles/

Brandon C. Loudermilk

Department of Linguistics,

Center for Mind and Brain

University of California, Davis

CFP: CUNY 2012 abstract submissions open

The abstract submissions page for CUNY 2012 is live and ready for your submissions:

http://cuny2012.commons.gc.cuny.edu/submit-abstract/

Please make a note of the submission requirements listed on that page as you prepare your abstract. In brief, 500 words plus 15 lines of text for examples, references, or data summaries, contained in a PDF file. The deadline is Friday, December 2, at 11:59pm, Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5).

NIMH Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience 2012

The 24th Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience will be held from June 24 - July 7, 2012. This year's topics are "Does Brain Plasticity Account for Everything?" with Jon H. Kaas, and "The Indispensable Role of Episodic Memory in Adaptive Behavior" with Ian Dobbins and Mike Miller. Applications are invited from eligible beginning and established researchers. The Summer Institute values diversity and welcomes applications from all qualified scientists.

For applications and further information, go to http://sicn.cmb.ucdavis.edu/. Applications and supporting materials must be received by January 17, 2012 at 5:00 PM PST.

Please feel free to circulate and post the attached flyer.

CFP: LabPhon 13 @ Stuttgart, Germany

The overall theme for the conference is “Phonological and phonetic computations: between grammar and neural activity.” Our goal is to bring together researchers from phonology, phonetics, and adjacent psycho- and neurosciences and to seek to advance these disciplines by encouraging the joint pursuit of interdisciplinary research questions. Specific topics that address this theme are the following:

Simulation as a research method in Laboratory Phonology.
Temporal mechanisms in neural processing of sounds and prosodies.
Rhythm and Temporal Structure.
Rich memory for rich phonology.

JOB: Programmer position @ NYU Neuroscience of Language Laboratory, New York

A full or part-time Programmer position is available at the NYU Neuroscience of Language Laboratory (http://www.psych.nyu.edu/meglab/nellab), available immediately. Responsibilities include both the development of MEG and EEG data analysis routines and functioning as support personnel for the lab. A strong background in statistics and Matlab is essential. Prior experience with psychological experiments and electrophysiology is preferred.

We are looking for a full-time person but will also consider an excellent match on a part-time basis. Salary commensurate with experience. To apply, please email CV and names of references to Prof. Liina Pylkkänen (liina.pylkkanen@nyu.edu). We will be at NLC and are happy to meet with possible candidates there.

JOB: Postdoc in neurolinguistics and language variation @ University of Marburg, Germany

The Department of Germanic Linguistics at the University of Marburg is seeking to fill the position of a postdoctoral researcher (salary according to EG 13 TV-H; i.e. approx. €3110-3640 / month before taxes commensurate with experience, amounting to approx. €1844-2082 / month after taxes and including health insurance) for the duration of three years. Starting date: January 1st 2012 or soon thereafter.

The position is part of the research unit "Exploring the building blocks of language" ("Fundierung linguistischer Basiskategorien"; financed by the German state of Hesse as part of the LOEWE programme), which aims to identify empirically grounded concepts and categories for linguistic theorising by combining empirical insights from neurolinguistics, language acquisition, language variation and change as well as linguistic typology. The postdoctoral researcher will conduct experiments on the learnability (plasticity) of hypothesised fundamental building blocks in the domains of phonology and the syntax-semantics interface using EEG and fMRI. He/she will also assist other projects within the research unit with experimental design and other methodology-related issues.

Summer School in Bilingualism @ Bangor University, UK

July 16-27, 2012
The Summer School in Bilingualism is a two-week international programme held at Bangor University, one of the leading institutions for bilingualism research. The Summer School will consist of 16-18 one-week courses on topics in bilingualism and will be taught by leading researchers in the field.

The Summer School will also feature keynote speeches by Colin Baker, Harald Clahsen, David Crystal, and Vyv Evans, and a symposium during which participants can present their work and obtain feedback.

Faculty include:

Article: Decoding the Brain’s Cacophony

"The man’s left hemisphere saw a chicken claw; his right saw a snow scene. Afterward, the man chose the most appropriate matches from an array of pictures visible to both hemispheres. He chose a chicken to go with the claw, and a shovel to go with the snow. So far, so good. But then Dr. Gazzaniga asked him why he chose those items..."

Must read NY Times article on Michael S. Gazzaniga.