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Linguistics Program

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Graduate Students

Our graduate students are performing research in all areas of linguistics. Learn about their interests and specializations.

 

 Graduate Students

Image Name Biography
The USC Linguistics Wug

Fuad Alghamdi

 

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Hana Baalousha

 

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Jessica Beck

 

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Noah Brandon

Noah Brandon is a M.A. student specializing in Germanic linguistics and sociolinguistics. His interests include grammatical gender, social gender discourses, and language & sexuality. Prior to starting his M.A., he earned his B.A. in German here at the University of South Carolina.

Scott Brewer

Scott Brewer

Scott Brewer is a Ph.D. student in historical linguistics, phonology, and dialectology. His current work focuses on consonant shifts in Germanic and their exponents in dialects of British English

The USC Linguistics Wug

Hannah Cambre

Hannah Cambre is a M.A. student focusing on Second Language Acquisition and Teaching English as a Second Language. She is interested in developing pedagogical approaches to using CALL to differentiate learning in ESL classrooms. She earned her B.A. in Asian Studies from Furman University and taught English to immigrants and refugees in the Greenville community. She works as a communications specialist in the Office of the Provost.

The USC Linguistics Wug

Ruhan Coban

Ruhan Coban is a first year MA student in the linguistics program. She is interested in Psycholinguistics. She has a B.A. in Translation and Interpretation between English and Turkish languages from Beykent University, Turkey.

Kayleigh Fisher

Kayleigh Fisher

Kayleigh Fisher is a PhD student specializing in sociolinguistics, with a secondary field in pragmatics. Her research interests include offensive language and reappropriation, language and media, and humor. Before coming to UofSC, Kayleigh earned her MA in Linguistics and TESL from Indiana State University.

Elena Galenka

Elena Galkina

Elena is a Ph.D. student focusing on Second Language Acquisition and Phonetics and Phonology of Bilingualism. She uses acoustic phonetics methodology to examine how speakers of different languages acquire the sound systems of their second languages.

The USC Linguistics Wug

Shannon Gallion

Shannon Gallion is a MA/PhD student specializing in sociolinguistics with a secondary interest in pragmatics. Their research interests focus on the relationship between language and gender, specifically regarding language used in trans, nonbinary and gender nonconforming communities in English and romance languages.

The USC Linguistics Wug

Altyn Hallayeva

Altyn Hallayeva is a Ph.D. student studying sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. Her current research interests lie in the cross-section of bi- or multilingualism, educational mobility, and the formation and navigation of belonging of bi- or multilingual migrants. Altyn's MA studies motivated her research in language ideologies, neoliberalism, and language policy in South Korea. She has a Specialist degree (B.A. equivalent)  in Spanish and an M.A. in TESOL (Teaching English to the Speakers of Other Languages).

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Michael Highlander

Michael's primary research interest is comparative Germanic linguistics with a focus on historical phonology, morphology and morpho-phonology, incorporating dialectal evidence. He has done work in the grouping of Germanic languages using phonological and morphological isoglosses. His dissertation is on the development of diphthongs in Bavarian German dialects . He is minoring in German Literature, and is interested in Medieval and 18th and 19th German Literature.

Paige Kuester

Paige Kuester

Paige Kuester is a Ph.D. candidate with focusing on sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. She’s interested in the ways that language and food (specifically wine!) intersect with different aspects of identity, such as class, and the ways in which processes like authentication are used to sell consumable products as commodities with value. She received her BA from the University of South Carolina in English and Anthropology and her MLIS from the University of Illinois.

Price L. Lassahn-Worrell

Price L. Lassahn-Worrell

Price is a Ph.D. candidate focusing in historical linguistics with a secondary specialization in medieval studies. His current research is focused on the syntax/semantics interface in medieval-era Germanic languages. He also dabbles in dialect additive approaches to teaching English. He holds a M.A. in English from Idaho State University. Outside of academia, he enjoys acting, philanthropy, and renovating his house. He is also the Middle-Aged Medievalist.

Samantha Martin

Samantha  A. Martin

Samantha Martin is a PhD Candidate in the Linguistics Program at UofSC. Her research in linguistic anthropology focuses on the circulation of feminist discourses in Chile.

 

Sara Moody

 

Anyssa Murphy

Anyssa  "AJ" Murphy

Anyssa (AJ) Murphy is a PhD candidate in the Linguistics Program, specializing in historical linguistics, Old English, Germanic, and the syntax-semantics interface. She has also studied Classical Latin and Classical Greek (about which she has published in the Journal of Greek Linguistics). She received her BA in English Literature and Classical Studies at Marshall University (Huntington, WV) in 2016 and her MA in Linguistics at the University of South Carolina in 2020. She is currently working on her dissertation, Exploring the Old English Passive: A statistical, Germanic approach wherein she applies corpus-based statistical methods to the question of the development of the passive construction in English.

During her Graduate studies, AJ has worked with Dr. Kurt Goblirsch, researching the Germanic vowel shift, and with Drs. Stanley Dubinsky and Michael Gavin for the Language Conflict Project, building a Language Distance Measure for comparing and calculating the linguistic distance between languages and language varieties. She has taught First Year English, Introduction to Language, Introduction to Language Sciences, and the Development of the English Language. For her teaching, she was awarded the Two Thumbs Up Award by UofSC’s Student Disability Resource Center in 2022.

Murphy, AJ, Stanley Dubinsky, Michael Gavin, and Harvey Starr. Conflicts over language stretch far beyond Russia and Ukraine. The Conversation: Politics and Society. May 23, 2022. 4 pp.

Murphy, AJ, Stanley Dubinsky, and Mark Beck. Semantic and syntactic demarcations of Classical Greek object cases: An object(ive) study. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America 5.1. New Orleans, LA: 107-117. 00, Intro to Language Sciences.

 

Chandler Nichols

 

 

Olivia Paglia

 

The U of SC Linguistics Wug

Dawson Petersen

Dawson Petersen is a PhD student in the linguistics program specializing in Psycholinguistics. He earned an interdisciplinary BS in Psychology and Linguistics from North Greenville University and an MA in Linguistics from the University of South Carolina. His research interests include anthropomorphism, metaphor, conceptual grounding, relevance theory, and ad hoc cognition. His CV is available here.

Paige Pinkston

Paige  (Victoria) Pinkston

Paige Pinkston is a Ph.D. student studying sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. She is interested in language and identity, race, politics, law, media, and the U.S. South. She is currently looking at youth political speech. She has a B.A. in Literature and an M.A. in Second Language Acquisition.

Angelina Rubina

Angelina Rubina

Angelina Rubina is an international student at UofSC. She is currently working as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the UofSC while pursuing a PhD degree in Linguistics (Second Language Acquisition). She got her MA in Linguistics in 2018 from the UofSC, and she has taught for the English Department, the Department of Linguistics, as well as at the International Accelerator Program at UofSC. Her current research interests focus on Russian and English morpho-syntax and pragmatics, the acquisition of Russian as a second or a heritage language, as well as the role of technology in second language teaching. Outside of research, Angelina holds a TESOL Certificate and has extensive experience in teaching English as a foreign and second language at all proficiency levels to both children and adults.

 

Amenah Salman

 

 

Nadra Salman

 

Shana Scucci

Shana Scucchi

Shana is a second-year MA Student specializing in Second Language Acquisition. Her subfield is in Teaching English as a Second Language, and her research interests include Technology use in the Foreign Language Classroom to facilitate communicative and sociopragmatic competence in non-native University ESL students. Shana spends her free time learning Korean, practicing yoga, and frequenting her favorite local haunt to study on their outdoor deck.

The U of SC Linguistics Wug

Rok Sim

Bio coming!

 

Kalil Warren

 

Sarah Wilson

Sarah Wilson

Sarah Wilson is a Ph.D. student in the Linguistics program, specializing in Psycholinguistics. She received her B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and is in the process of completing her M.A. at UofSC. Her research interests include lexical and syntactic processing, discourse, and the interface of language, cognition, and memory. She is a member of the Aging Brain Cohort (ABC) team in the Aphasia Lab. In her spare time, Sarah enjoys reading, hiking, horseback riding, visiting historic sites, and spending time with her family.

Cheng Xiao

Cheng Xiao

Cheng Xiao is a PhD candidate specializing in psycho/neuro-linguistics and second language acquisition. Her research focuses on the processing of emotional prosody and semantics in native speakers and L2 learners. She has a BA in Humanities Science, a BEc in Finance, and an MA in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics from Wuhan University. Her personal website is available here.


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