News

Emmalyn Nono and Sean Gibbons Receive the 2026 Department of Linguistics David Rood Award

Katlyn Econom — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:31:02 +0000

Emmalyn Nono and Sean Gibbons Receive the 2026 Department of Linguistics David Rood Award Katlyn Econom Thu, 04/16/2026 - 09:31

Linguistic majors Emmalyn Nono and Sean Gibbons have been selected for the 2026 Department of Linguistics David Rood Award. This scholarship recognizes a continuing student in the department who has demonstrated outstanding achievement and potential for further success in linguistics, for use in their final year of study. The scholarship is named in honor of Professor David Rood, who retired in 2016 after 48 years of teaching at CU, and was especially known for his advocacy and support of students. Both students will be recognized at the Linguistics Department Commencement Ceremony on May 2. Congratulations, Emmalyn and Sean!

Emmalyn Nono is currently pursuing a triple major in Linguistics, Neuroscience, and Chinese. Her research interests include speech production and the neural mechanisms and cultural influences underlying syntax. Emmalyn’s ultimate goal is to produce clinically and culturally relevant research that furthers her commitment to increasing the accessibility of communication and education. Beyond her time in Linguistics, Emmalyn serves as a Senior Resident Advisor, works as a Learning Assistant in CU’s Department of Chemistry, and can most often be found studying or, on rare occasions, catching up on a nap.

Sean Gibbons was born and raised in Denver, growing up on his parent's CD's of Widespread Panic and weekend camping trips. He truly treasures the community he has found in the Linguistics department at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� that makes Colorado feel even more like home. Sean is incredibly grateful for the instruction he has received from all of my professors and beyond for their continued support in my academic career.

Congratulations to our 2026 David Rood Award Recipients!

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Zachary Frisch Receives Inaugural Excellence in Service to the Department of Linguistics Award

Katlyn Econom — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:55:29 +0000

Zachary Frisch Receives Inaugural Excellence in Service to the Department of Linguistics Award Katlyn Econom Wed, 04/15/2026 - 12:55

Zachary Frisch is the inaugural recipient of the Excellence in Service to the Department of Linguistics Award. A Linguistics and International Affairs double major, Zachary has been an invaluable part of the department as our student employee.

Over the past several semesters, Zachary has played an important role in enhancing the department’s visibility and outreach. His skills in website design and marketing have helped showcase many Linguistics events, courses, and news to our community. He consistently brought creativity, thoughtful insights, and a collaborative spirit to every project. As the first recipient of this award, Zachary exemplifies the meaningful contributions that student employees make to the success of the department. He will be recognized at the Linguistics Department Commencement Ceremony on May 2.

Thank you for all your service and support, Zachary!

Zachary Frisch is the inaugural recipient of the Excellence in Service to the Department of Linguistics Award.

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Emmalyn Nono Selected to Receive a 2026 Jacob Van Ek Scholars Award

Katlyn Econom — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 17:54:37 +0000

Emmalyn Nono Selected to Receive a 2026 Jacob Van Ek Scholars Award Katlyn Econom Mon, 04/13/2026 - 11:54

Emmalyn Nono, a triple major in Linguistics, Neuroscience, and Chinese, is one of 26 students across the College of Arts & Sciences to receive the 2026 Jacob Van Ek Scholars Award. This prestigious award recognizes superior academic achievement and distinguished service to the University of Colorado Boulder and the community at large. Emmalyn will be recognized at the Spring 2026 Honors Recognition Ceremony on April 20th and at the Linguistics Department Commencement Ceremony on May 2. Congratulations, Emmalyn!

Emmalyn Nono, a triple major in Linguistics, Neuroscience, and Chinese, is one of 26 students across the College of Arts & Sciences to receive the 2026 Jacob Van Ek Scholars Award.

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Dr. Chase Raymond awarded the 2026 BFA Excellence Award for Excellence in Teaching

Katlyn Econom — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 18:03:04 +0000

Dr. Chase Raymond awarded the 2026 BFA Excellence Award for Excellence in Teaching Katlyn Econom Fri, 04/10/2026 - 12:03

Dr. Chase Raymond was awarded the 2026 BFA Excellence Award for Excellence in Teaching. The prestigious Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) Excellence Awards are peer-nominated awards that recognize faculty for outstanding work and concerted effort to make advances in the academy. The Excellence in Teaching award celebrates the importance of teaching and mentoring students as an integral part of faculty duties.

Dr. Raymond is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics. He also holds s secondary appointment as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, at the University of Colorado, Anschutz School of Medicine. In addition to his role as a professor, Dr. Raymond is the Undergraduate Associate Chair and also mentors the undergraduate Linguistics (LING) Club. A dynamic, engaged, and captivating teacher, Dr. Raymond’s excellence extends far beyond the ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� classroom, reaching students and faculty across the globe via his much sought after international workshops and methods-focused articles, handbooks, and textbooks on conversation analysis.

Dr. Chase Raymond was awarded the 2026 BFA Excellence Award for Excellence in Teaching. The Excellence in Teaching award celebrates the importance of teaching and mentoring students as an integral part of faculty duties.

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Dr. Bhuvana Narasimhan awarded the 2026 BFA Excellence Award for Excellence in Research, Scholarly and Creative Work

Katlyn Econom — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 17:07:24 +0000

Dr. Bhuvana Narasimhan awarded the 2026 BFA Excellence Award for Excellence in Research, Scholarly and Creative Work Katlyn Econom Fri, 04/10/2026 - 11:07

Dr. Bhuvana Narasimhan was awarded the 2026 BFA Excellence Award for Excellence in Research, Scholarly and Creative Work. The prestigious Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) Excellence Awards are peer-nominated awards that recognize faculty for outstanding work and concerted effort to make advances in the academy. The Excellence in Research, Scholarly and Creative Work celebrates the importance of research, scholarly, and creative work as integral parts of faculty achievements.

Dr. Narasimhan is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics, Director of the Language, Development, and Cognition Lab, and Fellow of the Institute of Cognitive Science. Her work addresses one of the most important and perduring questions across the history of the human sciences: How do children learn language? Deploying a sophisticated combination of naturalistic, experimental, and corpus-based methodologies, Dr. Narasimhan’s publications investigate the relationship between language and cognition, the acquisition of semantic and discourse-pragmatics in children acquiring a first language, and the crosslinguistic encoding of meaning and argument structure, with a focus on Hindi and Tamil. The many nomination letters submitted on her behalf position her as one of the leading psycholinguists around the globe working in the area of crosslinguistic studies of language and its development.

Dr. Bhuvana Narasimhan was awarded the 2026 BFA Excellence Award for Excellence in Research, Scholarly and Creative Work. The Excellence in Research, Scholarly and Creative Work celebrates the importance of research, scholarly, and creative work as integral parts of faculty achievements.

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Assistant Professor Ambrocio Gutiérrez Lorenzo Receives SSCI Divisional Grant

Katlyn Econom — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 18:31:05 +0000

Assistant Professor Ambrocio Gutiérrez Lorenzo Receives SSCI Divisional Grant Katlyn Econom Wed, 03/18/2026 - 12:31

Congratulations to Linguistics Assistant Professor, Dr. Ambrocio Gutiérrez, along with Professor Doris Loayza from the Latin American and Latinx Studies Center and Dr. Leila Gómez from the Department of Women and Gender Studies, for receiving a SSCI Divisional Grant. Their interdisciplinary proposal, titled “Creating a trilingual thematic dictionary for Zapotec and Quechua,” aims to create a digital thematic dictionary to support the teaching of Central Quechua and Central Zapotec varieties. The dictionaries will be trilingual for each language (Zapotec-Spanish-English and Quechua-Spanish-English). The project will begin summer 2026 and conclude spring 2027.

As explained in their proposal, the dictionaries will have a great impact:

Zapotec—spoken mainly in Southern Mexico—and Quechua —in the South American Andes, are languages also spoken in communities of migrants and their descendants in the United States. Since Spring 2021, the Southern Quechua variety has been taught at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� by Loayza, who has developed a curriculum and teaching material for the Southern variety. However, no variety of Central Quechua has ever been taught at a US University, and no English language materials have been developed for this variety... The dictionaries will be extremely helpful to instructors and students for class activities and assignments.

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Linguistics PhD student Kate Arnold-Murray recognized at "Best Should Teach" Ceremony

Katlyn Econom — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 17:41:06 +0000

Linguistics PhD student Kate Arnold-Murray recognized at "Best Should Teach" Ceremony Katlyn Econom Tue, 03/10/2026 - 11:41

Linguistics PhD student and Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL) Lead Graduate Teacher, Kate Arnold-Murray, had a busy day on March 5th, 2026. Kate Arnold-Murray not only served as a panelist for the Spring Teaching and Learning Conference 2026, but she was also recognized at the Best Should Teach Ceremony. The panel Kate served on was titled, CTL Lead Graduate Teaching Fellow Panel: From Where Have We Seen Teaching Come, and Where are We Going?

The Department of Linguistics congratulates Kate Arnold-Murray in receipt of this award!

��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� the role of Lead Graduate Teacher
Departments in the Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities annually select one outstanding graduate instructor to serve as a Lead Graduate Teacher. Each Lead has received extensive training on college pedagogy, academic leadership, management, and professional development and then train peer graduate instructors on these topics. They perform videotape observations, micro-teaching sessions, lead workshops on teaching that are specific to their discipline and help other graduate instructors complete the requirements for the Certificate in College Teaching.

Kate Arnold-Murray on the panel titled, CTL Lead Graduate Teaching Fellow Panel: From Where Have We Seen Teaching Come, and Where are We Going?, at the Spring Teaching and Learning Conference 2026.

Linguistics PhD student and Center for Teaching & Learning Lead Graduate Teacher (CTL), Kate Arnold-Murray, had a busy day on March 5th, 2026. Kate Arnold-Murray not only served as a panelist for the Spring Teaching and Learning Conference 2026, but she was also recognized at the "Best Should Teach" Ceremony.

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Dr. Bhuvana Narasimhan recipient of this year's "The Best Should Teach" Gold Award at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��

Katlyn Econom — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 16:50:40 +0000

Dr. Bhuvana Narasimhan recipient of this year's "The Best Should Teach" Gold Award at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� Katlyn Econom Tue, 03/10/2026 - 10:50

2026 Best Should Teach Group Photo

Dr. Bhuvana Narasimhan was selected as a recipient of this year's "The Best Should Teach" Gold Award at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��.

The Best Should Teach Initiative strives to acknowledge excellence in teaching and academic leadership. The initiative is managed by the Center for Teaching & Learning in coordination with the School of Education, and the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Lindley and Marguerite Stiles established the initiative in 1996 to promulgate the message that “The Best Should Teach.”

Dr. Bhuvana Narasimhan joins an elite group of dedicated scholars who demonstrate exceptional teaching and academic leadership, exemplifying award founders Lindley and Marguerite Stiles’ message, “The Best Should Teach.” Dr. Bhuvana Narasimhan is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics and the Director of the Language, Development, and Cognition Lab, and Fellow of the Institute of Cognitive Science.

A student nominated Dr. Naraimhan with the following words:

As a mentor for my Honor's Thesis, Bhuvana was with me every step of the way -- through the long IRB process, editing my UROP grant proposal, giving her insights on study design, helping me to analyze my data and polish my final thesis, and giving me access to peers and time to run through my presentation before the actual defense. While there were points in the process in which I fell behind, Bhuvana always granted me grace and patience that I am eternally grateful for. Meanwhile, her guidance was consistent and kind, but still allowed me to feel like I had agency within the process.
Overall, my CU experience would have been dramatically worse without Bhuvana's mentorship. She has taught me the power of critical thinking, iteration, collaboration, and patience -- and has done it all with a box of cookies and words of encouragement in hand. I truly cannot over emphasize how much more equipped I feel to handle the world as a direct result of working with Bhuvana, and I cannot thank her enough.

The Department of Linguistics congratulates Dr. Narasimhan in receipt of this student nominated and faculty committee selected award!

��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� "The Best Should Teach"

The Best Should Teach Initiative celebrates excellence in teaching at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. It supports the preparation of college and university faculty, as well as public school teachers, in their disciplinary fields. Best Should Teach Gold and Silver Awards are presented at the event each year. The Best Should Teach event and awards are co-funded by the Ira and Ineva Baldwin Fund in the CU Foundation and Brian Good's private Best Should Teach Fund, with additional support from the Center for Teaching & Learning, the School of Education, and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Bhuvana Narasimhan has been selected as a recipient of this year's "The Best Should Teach" Gold Award at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��. The Best Should Teach Initiative strives to acknowledge excellence in teaching and academic leadership.

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LING Club Welcomes Adam Aleksic, the "Etymology Nerd,” as 2026 Undergraduate Distinguished Speaker

Katlyn Econom — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 23:25:13 +0000

LING Club Welcomes Adam Aleksic, the "Etymology Nerd,” as 2026 Undergraduate Distinguished Speaker Katlyn Econom Fri, 02/27/2026 - 16:25

On February 25, 2026, the LING Club welcomed the 2026 Undergraduate Distinguished Speaker, Adam Aleksic, also known as the "Etymology Nerd." He is a linguist, social media influencer, and published author.

Many guests stayed after the talk to ask Mr. Aleksic questions and request book signings of his New York Times bestselling book, Algospeak.

CU's student-run radio station, Radio 1190, featured the event in a written article and an audio magazine segment. The audio magazine segment airs from 2:47 to 10:56 in the news episode.

LING Club and faculty advisor, Dr. Chase Raymond, with the 2026 Undergraduate Distinguished Speaker, Adam Aleksic, the "Etymology Nerd."

Adam Aleksic speaking at the 2026 Undergraduate Distinguished Speaker Event

On February 25, 2026, the LING Club welcomed the 2026 Undergraduate Distinguished Speaker, Adam Aleksic, also known as the "Etymology Nerd."

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Kira Hall Receives LSA Zwicky Award for Pioneering Scholarship in Queer Linguistics

Katlyn Econom — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 18:01:28 +0000

Kira Hall Receives LSA Zwicky Award for Pioneering Scholarship in Queer Linguistics Katlyn Econom Mon, 11/17/2025 - 11:01

Dr. Kira Hall, ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� Distinguished Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology, has received the Zwicky Award from the Linguistic Society of America. Named in honor of Arnold Zwicky—the first openly LGBTQ+ president of the LSA—the award recognizes LGBTQ+ scholars and those whose work in linguistics benefits LGBTQ+ communities.

In announcing the 2026 recipient, the LSA cited Dr. Hall’s foundational role in establishing queer linguistics as a field, beginning with the landmark volume Queerly Phrased (Oxford University Press, 1997). The citation further noted that her ethnographic and theoretical research on queer discourse practices in India and the United States has been consistently at the forefront of scholarship on language, gender, and sexuality.

Congratulations to Dr. Hall on this distinguished recognition.

Dr. Kira Hall, Distinguished Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology, has been awarded the prestigious Zwicky Award by the Linguistic Society of America.

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News

Emmalyn Nono and Sean Gibbons Receive the 2026 Department of Linguistics David Rood Award

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Zachary Frisch Receives Inaugural Excellence in Service to the Department of Linguistics Award

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Emmalyn Nono Selected to Receive a 2026 Jacob Van Ek Scholars Award

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Dr. Chase Raymond awarded the 2026 BFA Excellence Award for Excellence in Teaching

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Dr. Bhuvana Narasimhan awarded the 2026 BFA Excellence Award for Excellence in Research, Scholarly and Creative Work

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Assistant Professor Ambrocio Gutiérrez Lorenzo Receives SSCI Divisional Grant

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Linguistics PhD student Kate Arnold-Murray recognized at "Best Should Teach" Ceremony

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Dr. Bhuvana Narasimhan recipient of this year's "The Best Should Teach" Gold Award at ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������

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LING Club Welcomes Adam Aleksic, the "Etymology Nerd,” as 2026 Undergraduate Distinguished Speaker

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Kira Hall Receives LSA Zwicky Award for Pioneering Scholarship in Queer Linguistics

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Dr. Bhuvana Narasimhan recipient of this year's "The Best Should Teach" Gold Award at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��