Elora Cromarty: Tánsi Káhkinaw! My name is Elora Cromarty, and I am one of the incoming students in the MITILI program! I was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada, and am a member of Kinoséw Sípí, or Norway House Cree Nation, located in Northern Manitoba. I’m Muskego-Ininéw (Swampy Cree) and an L2 learner/speaker of Ininímowin (Swampy Cree/ N-dialect of Cree). My dialect has around 3,000 speakers with an average age of 50, and my community has around 500 L1 speakers. I just finished my BA in Linguistics from the University of Manitoba, and my interests are in morphology, syntax, morphosyntax, sociolinguistics, and language acquisition. Outside of academics, I’ve worked with several non-profit/grassroots/community-based organizations and have supported programming with the 7 different Indigenous languages spoken in my province. I’m really interested in seeing how linguistics can support revitalization and documentation practices in a way that ultimately supports our communities. Finally, in my free time I like to bead, sew, play video games, and go sightseeing! Ékosáni!
Aya Halabi: I am originally from Nablus, the largest city in the northern West Bank, Palestine. I earned my BA in English Language & Literature and my MA in Applied Linguistics and Translation in Palestine before moving to the U.S., where I completed an MA in Linguistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. My research lies in syntax and its interface with morphology, with a particular focus on agreement, case, and their interactions—especially in ergative languages. I am also interested in broader questions of allomorphy, locality, and spell-out domains in complex words. Empirically, I work on endangered (and moribund) Semitic languages and conduct fieldwork with these communities. Beyond linguistics, I enjoy reading fiction, cooking, and taking long walks.
Eyal Marco: My name is Eyal (I visited the department last year, so some of you may know me). I come from Tel Aviv University, where I worked at Ezer Rasin’s phonological computation lab. My theoretical phonological work at the lab was primarily informed by original fieldwork on two endangered Jewish varieties of Arabic. In a different line of research, I’ve been evaluating theories of phonological representation based on their predictions regarding learning. Before joining the lab, I spent many years in the Israeli music industry. I’m also a devoted Arsenal fan and always enjoy discussing Premier League football.
Amanda Michel: Hi, my name is Mandy! I grew up in Northern Virginia (around Washington D.C.) and completed my Bachelor’s at the College of William & Mary in Linguistics and Computer Science. My linguistic interests lie in theoretical and computational phonology; so far, I’ve done work modeling variation in Norwegian stress patterns using MaxEnt models. When I’m not incessantly asking friends and family to repeat things because they have unknowingly done something of phonological interest, I enjoy reading (fantasy and sci fi, in particular), crocheting (or knitting… or embroidering… or sewing…), and going to live music shows.
Vsevolod (Seva) Masliukov: I come from Ivanovo, a regional center in the European part of Russia. I received a B.A. in linguistics at Lomonosov Moscow State University. I am primarily interested in the semantics of aspect & event/argument structure. Most of my research to date was done through fieldwork and was focused on Uralic languages (especially Northern Khanty and Forest Nenets). Outside of linguistics, I enjoy cinema, reading fiction and trivia, traveling around the globe and some occasional origami.
Ro’nikonhkátste Norton: Kwe kwe, my name is Ro’nikonhkátste Norton, I am wolf clan of the Kanien’kehá:ka nation. I come from Kahnawà:ke, located just across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal. I began actively learning Kanien’kéha as a second language 13 years ago and have since been heavily involved in its revitalization, primarily as a language instructor for the past 11 years. While my formal background is in education, having earned a B.Ed. from McGill University, my interest naturally lies in linguistics. I am looking forward to starting the MITILI program and gaining knowledge and experience that I can bring back to my communities. As someone trying to reclaim my entire language, my areas of interest in linguistics are pretty broad and all-encompassing. I’ll have to narrow that down and choose something at some point during my time here at MIT. Otherwise, I enjoy reading good books, watching good television, and cooking (and eating) good food. I recently began lifting. I am also prone to doing whatever it is that my daughter would like to do. One fun fact about her (and me, I suppose) that I’m quite proud of is that I successfully bridged the intergenerational gap between L1 speakers, between my grandmother and her.
Thomas Truong: Hi I’m Thomas, I’m from Orlando, Florida and I got my BA in Linguistics and Philosophy from UMass Amherst. I enjoy learning about many topics in semantics and syntax, such as modality, tense/aspect, polarity, and comparatives/superlatives. Non-linguistics subjects I like include math and philosophy and art history. I like getting museum fatigue in random exhibits and traveling to see cool things. I also like trying new foods- especially strange and uncommon dishes from any cuisine. Recently I enjoy bouldering but I want to try and learn new sports.
Karolin Kaiser: I’m Karolin from Berlin. I am interested in semantics, especially comparison constructions, additivity, and at times disjunction. The internet in all its forms is my main hobby (especially texting). I do enjoy reading and politics. I don’t particularly enjoy board games.
Nima Bahrami
James Morley