News & Events

The Department of Linguistics was strongly represented at the 57th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 57), held last week at the University at Buffalo. Faculty, current graduate students, alumni, and undergraduate alumni from Rochester contributed to the conference as organizers, presenters, and volunteers, showcasing the department's ongoing engagement with research on African languages.

A highlight of the conference was the remarkable presence of Rochester affiliates, both current and former. Attendees included faculty members and students alongside alumni who are now pursuing graduate studies at leading institutions. Among the alumni in attendance were Thuong (Beryl) Bui (MA Linguistics, 2022), now a PhD student at Rutgers University; Jane Loney (BA, 2023), now a PhD student at Harvard University; and Becky Everson (MA in Language Documentation and Description, 2024), now a PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley.

Several Rochester faculty members played key roles in organizing the conference. Nadine Grimm, Scott Grimm, and Asia Pietraszko served on the organizing team, helping to bring together scholars from around the world for this premier gathering in African linguistics. Current PhD students Ifeoma Okoh, Joseph Owoyele Oluwasegun, and Lateef Adeleke also contributed as student volunteers.

Rochester-affiliated scholars presented research spanning phonology, syntax, morphology, and phonetics:

• Lateef Adeleke presented two papers: Polarity-Conditioned TAM and Negative Allomorphs in Uneme and Reflexes of A-Bar Movements in Uhami (co-authored with Moyinoluwa David Ekundayo and Kayode Solomon Gbenga).
• Joseph Owoyele Oluwasegun presented Vowel Deletion and Insertion in Ukue: An Optimality Approach.
• Danil Alekseev presented Phonology of the Nobiin Pluractional.
• Jeremy Coburn presented Acoustic Phonetics of Grassmann's Law in Hadza.
• Jane Loney presented Zulu Quantifier Float Diagnoses Movement Paths.
• Thuy-Thuong (Beryl) Bui presented When Causatives Really Iterate: The Case of Baatonum (co-authored with Ariela Ye).

The breadth of participation at ACAL 57 reflects the department's continued strength in African linguistics and highlights the accomplishments of its students, alumni, and faculty. The conference also provided an opportunity to reconnect with former Rochester students who are continuing their academic careers at institutions across the country.

We congratulate all of the presenters, organizers, and volunteers who represented Rochester at ACAL 57 and contributed to another successful conference.