A message from Chair of Linguistics

Dear friends and donors,

I hope this message finds you in good health. As a proud member of the University of Michigan community, you understand the profound impact that a high-quality education can have on an individual's life. Today, I want to share exciting developments in our department and invite you to play a pivotal role in our growth and success.

The Department of Linguistics is taking steps to prepare its students for careers that are more and more affected by the rise of new technologies. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing countless industries and reshaping how language is being used in many domains. We are focusing on several initiatives, seeking means to attract and support faculty to engage with the new technology in their scholarship and teaching, creating opportunities to foster student excellence through internships and experiential learning, as well as expanding our curriculum. Our newly created course Alien Anatomy: How Chat GPT Works is now a regular course, enrolling 100 students this Fall 2024 term, adding to a growing number of courses, close to ten now, focusing on computing, technology, and language.

In parallel, we continue to create and grow courses in which students discover the cognitive and social aspects of how language is structured, acquired, and used in all domains of life. We expanded our course offerings by about 40% this year, and we now have close to 110 linguistics majors and more than 50 minors, the largest numbers in 10 years, reflecting the enthusiasm of our students. These developments strongly benefit from the generous support from our alumni and friends. By contributing to linguistics at U‑M, you can directly support internships that offer invaluable hands-on experience, help fund research and innovative courses that delve into the intricacies of language and AI, and provide study abroad scholarships that broaden our students' horizons in a multicultural world.

You can contribute to our Strategic Fund for a broad range of initiatives, or to the Excellence in Linguistics Undergraduate Education Fund, a newly established fund thanks to support from Linguistics alum Eric Breck and his wife Emily Breck.

We greatly appreciate your consideration of this appeal, to ensure the sustained excellence of U‑M linguistics.

Warmest regards,

Acrisio Pires
Department Chair