Annual REU Site Intersection of Linguistics, Language and Culture Conference

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The NSF REU ILLC annual 2021 and 2022 conferences will coincide with and complement the 2nd Cycle of the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates Site 'Intersection of Linguistics, Language and Culture' (ILLC) housed by Molloy College, Long Island and CUNY Brooklyn College, both in New York.

The conferences aim at increasing diversity among emerging researchers and among the projects undertaken by future researchers and professionals in linguistics and speech-language-communication sciences. They will involve five components: (i) undergraduate projects by members of cultural, ethnic and linguistic groups underrepresented in higher education, with a focus on novel findings in their language/language varieties, and on STEM-based innovative methodologies and explanations of broader impacts; (ii) participation of high school students so that they discover linguistics and the research areas and professions associated with linguistics, before they enter college; (iii) empowerment of undergraduate and high school students, especially members of groups underrepresented in higher education, to become emergent scholars and valued members of higher education institutions in the process of the organization of the conference; (iv) dissemination of the conference oral and poster presentations during and beyond the conference through two complementary platforms: open-access publications of proceedings and video presentations; (v) recognition and valuing of college and high school participation and work through the competitive awarding of travel expenses and prizes.

The proposed conferences will disseminate novel findings that reflect the U.S. and world cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity and that are needed to advance the field.

The proposed conferences will have three sets of broader impacts including (i) the clinical, educational and technological implications of the findings that emerge from the projects conducted by the NSF REU ILLC site fellows and the poster presenters, (ii) the increase of diversity of the workforce among researchers and professionals in speech-language-hearing-communication sciences, (iii) the increase of knowledge in the general population of the significance of linguistics, the fact that it is a STEM-based discipline and that various professional sectors exhibiting rapid growth value both linguistic training and the ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage of minority students from groups underrepresented in higher education

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.