Harvard Professor Under Fire In Latest Attack On Free Speech – JONATHAN TURLEY

By any measure, Harvard Professor Steven Pinker, who holds the Johnstone Family Chair of Psychology, is one of the most influential intellectual leaders in the world. He is also someone who believes in robust intellectual discourse and free thought and speech.  That propensity for academic freedom has now made him a target of hundreds of academics and graduate students who are seeking his removal from the Linguistic Society of America. The letter is one of the most chilling examples of the new orthodoxy that has taken over our academic institutions.  The signatories seek his removal for holding opposing views on issues like underlying causes of police shootings and other research.  The cited grievances are at best nuanced and at worst nonsensical.  Yet, hundreds signed their names and academic affiliations to try to punish a professor for holding opposing views to their own.  We have been discussing these cases across the country including a similar effort to oust a leading economist from the University of Chicago.  It is part of a wave of intolerance sweeping over our colleges and our newsrooms — a campaign that will devour its own in the loss of academic freedoms and free speech. (I should note that I do not know Dr. Pinker and, to the best of my knowledge, I have never met him).

The campaign against Pinker is based on a small number of tweets where he dares to challenge the views of his colleagues and others on issues related to police shootings.  There was a time when it would have been viewed as a shameful betrayal of our profession to retaliate against a fellow academic in this way.  Now, hundreds (shown below) seek to have their names associated with an effort to punish a professor for his challenging a new orthodoxy in academia.

As a blog focused on free speech and academic freedom issues, the merits of these disagreements is less important than the effort to silence or punish opposing views.  However, the underlying postings (and Pinker’s apparent viewpoints) are relevant to understanding the growing intolerance for conflicting viewpoints.  We will briefly discuss the six objections below.  In so doing, I will have spent more written analysis addressing the attacks on Pinker than these academics and students spent in accusing him of the most vile predilections.  My complaint is not that his views are beyond criticism. My objection is to the lack of substantial evidence or analysis, and, most importantly, the effort to remove him from a key academic group. Indeed, the letter states many of the signatories want him to be effectively barred from academic discourse.

Pinker has been vocal in his opposition to the level of police shootings in our society and has recognized their devastating impact on the African American community.  He has however suggested that the level of police shootings may be the result of poor training and the excessive use of force generally by police in the United States.  He is not alone in raising that issue. We have previously discussed how the United States has far greater use of lethal force that virtually any other nation.  Pinker, and others, have not denied that racism plays a role or that we have systemic racist problems in society. Rather he has suggested that, if we want to reduce police shootings, we may want to consider whether they are being driven by a police culture and common training that tend to escalate the level of force used in these situations.

Thus, in the first cited tweet (from 2015), Pinker is chastised for linking to a New York Times articles that suggests that “Police don’t shoot blacks disproportionately” but rather says that there are larger societal and structural issues at play in these studies.  The critics used this tweet as their first example of Pinker’s unacceptable viewpoints and state:

“Let the record show that Dr. Pinker draws this conclusion from an article that contains the following quote: “The data is unequivocal. Police killings are a race problem: African-Americans are being killed disproportionately and by a wide margin.” (original emphasis) We believe this shows that Dr. Pinker is willing to make dishonest claims in order to obfuscate the role of systemic racism in police violence.”

The carefully edited quote reveals not just intellectual intolerance but intellectual dishonesty.  Here is the full quote:

“ The  data  is  unequivocal .  Police   killings  are a  race   problem :  African – Americans  are being  killed  disproportionately and by a wide margin. And  police  bias may be responsible. But this  data  does not prove that biased  police  officers are more likely to shoot blacks in any given encounter.

Instead, there is another possibility: It is simply that — for reasons that may well include  police  bias —  African – Americans  have a very large number of encounters with  police  officers. Every  police encounter contains a risk: The officer might be poorly trained, might act with malice or simply make a mistake, and civilians might do something that is perceived as a threat. The omnipresence of guns exaggerates all these risks.”

That is precisely what Pinker was saying in the tweet, but the signatories falsely suggest that he misrepresented the article.

In the second tweet, the signatories do not even try to quote from a linked article that Pinker cites:

Again, the article itself adopts the same balanced analysis that does not deny the role of racism in shootings but also highlights that training and cultural issues could be driving the high number of fatal shootings:

“Police  violence is tangled up with racism and systemic injustice. We desperately need to do  more  to address that, foremost by shoring up the criminal-justice system so that it holds  police  officers accountable when they kill. But it’s also true that deadly mistakes are going to happen when  police  officers engage in millions of potentially  dangerous  procedures a year. What aviation teaches us is that it should be possible to “accident proof”  police work, if only we are willing to admit when mistakes are made.”

Rather than acknowledge that nuanced intellectual point, the signatories adopt a common attack on free speech today: Pinker is guilty of “both-sides” rhetoric.”  We saw this attack succeed recently in the infamous decision of the New York Times to apologize for publishing the opposing views of a United States Senator and then forcing out the editor who approved the opinion editorial.  (Indeed, these Times articles were a painful reminder of the journalistic integrity that once defined that newspaper).

The third objection concern Pinker referring to New York subway shooter Bernhard Goetz as “mild mannered.”  The critics refer to his racist views and insist that Pinker is being impermissibly “casual.”  However, a search on Lexis found dozens of similar references to Goetz. CNN, the New York Times, and others include descriptions of Goetz as a “mild mannered” individual.  One can be mild mannered and still be a criminal and a racist.

The fourth objection is that Pinker claimed that it was “statistically obtuse” to claim that the killings of a deranged California student was proof of a pattern of violence against women. His point appears to be a classic correlation versus causation critique.  One can easily disagree with this observation but he seems to be objecting to taking the case itself as proof of the pattern.  What is fascinating is that the letter is premised originally on the fact that this student killed six women.  In reality, the student killed 2 women and 4 men.  Even though twice the number of men were murdered, the letter corrects the error but not conclusion: “Regardless of the identities of the victims, the murderer was driven by misogyny.”

The fifth objection is truly mind blowing.  Pinker is attacked for “publicly co-opt[ing] the academic work of a Black social scientist to further his deflationary agenda.”  It may require a linguistics degree to fully appreciate what coopting academic work to advance a deflationary agenda actually means.  This is made more difficult by the fact that these academics and students do not actually see the need to explain how Pinker “misrepresents the work.”  He is just declared dishonest.  However, these signatories seem to double up on the fifth and sixth objections since the link is directed to the study by Lawrence D. Bobo, the W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University.

So let’s go to the sixth objection over these tweets:

1. 

The signatories insist that even using the term “urban crime/violence” is a “dogwhistle” for racists.  However, again, a search of that terminology has been used dozens of times by civil rights leaders and Democratic leaders.

Once again, there is plenty to challenge in these viewpoints. Indeed, I would have seen this letter as an excellent foundation for a debate on campus. Pinker seems to want to have such academic discourse in making these points. The problem is not that he is being challenged on these points but that they are being used as an effort to remove him from an intellectual society.  These six objections are used as the basis to claim that Pinker has shown “a pattern of downplaying the very real violence of systemic racism and sexism, and, moreover, a pattern that is not above deceitfulness, misrepresentation, or the employment of dogwhistles.”

What makes this even more dubious is the following statement from these signatories:

Really, the foregoing language was not a “desire to judge Dr. Pinker’s actions in moral terms, or claim to know what his aims are”?  Moreover, I am not sure what “cancelling” means if it does not include stripping Pinker of his association with the leading intellectual group in his field.  It is also worth noting that “many” of the signatories did want him barred for being able to work with other academics in the field.  Rather than simply engage Pinker in honest academic debate, they want him barred from being able to share or defend his views in the linguistic or LSA communities.

Below is their open letter, which I encourage you to read.

This is an open letter by members of the linguistics community calling for the removal of Dr. Steven Pinker from both our list of distinguished academic fellows and our list of media experts. We, the undersigned, believe that Dr. Pinker’s behavior as a public academic is not befitting of a representative of our professional organization, that the LSA’s own stated goals make such a conclusion inevitable, and that the LSA should publicly reaffirm its position and distance itself from Dr. Pinker.

Induction into the list of LSA fellows is one of the highest signals of prestige in the linguistic community. Often, fellows are seen as the first line of academic linguistic authority, and trustworthy sources of linguistic knowledge. Lay people and members of the press reach out to fellows and media experts for official statements. We feel that fellows therefore have a responsibility that comes with the honor, credibility, and visibility allotted them by their distinguished appointment. Dr. Pinker does not live up to this standard.

As we demonstrate below, Dr. Pinker’s behavior is systematically at odds with the LSA’s recently issued statement on racial justice, which argues that “listening to and respecting [the experience of students of color] is crucial, as is acknowledging and addressing rather than overlooking or denying the role of the discipline of linguistics in the reproduction of racism.” Instead, Dr. Pinker has a history of speaking over genuine grievances and downplaying injustices, frequently by misrepresenting facts, and at the exact moments when Black and Brown people are mobilizing against systemic racism and for crucial changes.

Though no doubt related, we set aside questions of Dr. Pinker’s tendency to move in the proximity of what The Guardian called a revival of “scientific racism”, his public support for David Brooks (who has been argued to be a proponent of “gender essentialism”), his expert testimonial in favor of Jeffrey Epstein (which Dr. Pinker now regrets), or his dubious past stances on rape and feminism. Nor are we concerned with Dr. Pinker’s academic contributions as a linguist, psychologist and cognitive scientist. Instead, we aim to show here Dr. Pinker as a public figure has a pattern of drowning out the voices of people suffering from racist and sexist violence, in particular in the immediate aftermath of violent acts and/or protests against the systems that created them.

Below, we document six relevant occasions that show how Dr. Pinker’s behavior is systematically and directly at odds with the LSA’s stated aims. We believe that these examples show that Dr. Pinker is untenable as an LSA fellow and should not be allowed to retain that status.

Let the record show that Dr. Pinker draws this conclusion from an article that contains the following quote: “The data is unequivocal. Police killings are a race problem: African-Americans are being killed disproportionately and by a wide margin.” (original emphasis) We believe this shows that Dr. Pinker is willing to make dishonest claims in order to obfuscate the role of systemic racism in police violence.

We believe our appeal to remove Dr. Pinker from the LSA fellows list and the list of media experts falls within the purview of the LSA because of the goals that the LSA has set for itself. In its public statement on race, the LSA “encourag[es] linguists to critically reflect on the changing nature of academic, social, cultural, and linguistic understandings of race”, and explicitly states that “there is no linguistic justice without racial justice… [this stance] requires that linguists actively work to promote equity and social justice in ways that benefit underrepresented scholars and communities of color”. We believe that the examples above show that Dr. Pinker’s established pattern of behavior stands in direct opposition to the LSA’s publicly stated aims, and the work they call for.

We want to note here that we have no desire to judge Dr. Pinker’s actions in moral terms, or claim to know what his aims are. Nor do we seek to “cancel” Dr. Pinker, or to bar him from participating in the linguistics and LSA communities (though many of our signatories may well believe that doing so would be the right course of action). We do, however, believe that the examples introduced above establish that Dr. Pinker’s public actions constitute a pattern of downplaying the very real violence of systemic racism and sexism, and, moreover, a pattern that is not above deceitfulness, misrepresentation, or the employment of dogwhistles. In light of the fact that Dr. Pinker is read widely beyond the linguistics community, this behavior is particularly harmful, not merely for the perception of linguistics by the general public, but for movements against the systems of racism and sexism, and for linguists affected by these violent systems.

(If you would like to add your name to this open letter, please sign using this google form. All signatures will be alphabetized by last name, and added to the document at regular intervals. Everyone who identifies as a linguist is welcome, and encouraged to sign. For comments, or questions, please reach out to lettertothelsa2020@gmail.com.
Addendum: Unfortunately, due to the form being abused both to threaten the editors, and to interfere with the signing process, we can, at this point, only accept signatures via email, and will only accept signatures from valid .edu addresses, or equivalent.)

Errata:
The UCSB incident involved the murder of 2 women and 4 men, not 6 women as stated in the text. Regardless of the identities of the victims, the murderer was driven by misogyny, as demonstrated both by his manifesto and the fact that the perpetrator targeted a sorority house. Dr Pinker’s tweet either ignores or denies this aspect of the event.

# Name Affiliation Role 1 A, Pranav Science Park, Hong Kong NLP Engineer 2 Abner, Natasha University of Michigan Assistant Professor 3 Abramovitz, Rafael MIT PhD student 4 Ackerman, Lauren Newcastle University 5 Adamson, Luke Harvard University Postdoctoral Researcher 6 Adger, David Queen Mary University of London Professor of Linguistics 7 Ahmed, Anaïs 8 Ahmed, Samuel 9 Ahn, Byron Princeton Assistant Professor 10 Alam ,Marghoob 11 Alden, Paul University of Maryland 12 Altshuler, Daniel University of Oxford Associate Professor 13 Ananthanarayan, Sunkulp The University of Texas at Austin 14 Anderson, Carolyn University of Massachusetts, Amherst PhD candidate 15 Anderson, Catherine McMaster University Associate Professor 16 Andersson, Samuel Yale University PhD Student 17 Antonenko, Andrei Stony Brook University Lecturer 18 Aravind, Athulya MIT Linguistics Assistant Professor 19 Arehalli, Suhas Johns Hopkins University PhD student 20 Arnett, Catherine UC San Diego Graduate Student 21 Arregi, Karlos The University of Chicago Associate Professor 22 Arunachalam, Sudha New York University Associate Professor 23 Asinari, Sarah University of Connecticut PhD Student 24 Atkinson, Emily University of Michigan Postdoctoral Research Fellow 25 Auger, Julie Université de Montréal Associate Professor 26 Austen, Martha The Ohio State University PhD Candidate 27 Babaji, Charles Analytical Engineer 28 Babinski, Sarah Yale University PhD Candidate 29 Bai, Justin CU Boulder PhD student 30 Baier, Nico University of British Columbia Postdoc 31 Baird, Maggie University of Massachusetts, Amherst PhD Student 32 Bakos, Jon Indiana State University Assistant Professor 33 Bakst, Sarah University of Wisconsin–Madison Postdoctoral Researcher 34 Ballwahn, Isaac New York University 35 Banerjee, Neil Massachusetts Institute of Technology PhD candidate 36 Baratta, Amy 37 Barchas-Lichtenstein, Jena Knology Researcher 38 Barnes, Sonia Marquette University Associate Professor 39 Baron, Bertille Georgetown University PhD Candidate 40 Baron, Christopher MIT PhD Student 41 Barros, Matthew Washington University in St. Louis Lecturer 42 Barry, Daniel The Graduate Center, CUNY 43 Bartell, Stefan University of Delaware graduate student 44 Barzilai, Maya L. 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Simon Fraser University research staff 366 McCoy, Tom Johns Hopkins University Graduate student 367 McCready, Elin Aoyama Gakuin University Professor 368 McFadden, Thomas Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft 369 McGowan, Kevin University of Kentucky Assistant Professor 370 McKay, Isabel University of Arizona 371 McPherson, Laura Dartmouth College Associate Professor 372 McVeigh, Joe University of Jyväskylä University teacher 373 Meadows, Tom Queen Mary University of London PhD Candidate 374 Medina, Jennifer 375 Merryweather, Marina 376 Mesh, Kate Lund University Postdoctoral Researcher 377 Meyer, Cherry University of Michigan 378 Midgley, Daniel Because Language Co-presenter 379 Mieczkowski, Hannah Stanford University PhD candidate, Communication 380 Miller, Taylor SUNY Oswego Visiting Assistant Professor 381 Minnick, Lisa C. Western Michigan University Associate Professor 382 Mirea, Nicole Northwestern University PhD student 383 Molina, Malia Carleton College 384 Monette, James Data Scientist 385 Mooney, Kate New York University 386 Moraski, Kendall University of British Columbia Alum 387 Morgan, Adam NYU Postdoc 388 Morikawa, Nora 389 Mufwene, Salikoko S. University of Chicago Professor of Linguistics 390 Munson, Benjamin University of Minnesota Professor and Chair 391 Murphy, AJ University of South Carolina PhD Student 392 Murray, Sarah Cornell University Associate Professor 393 Musica, Anne Georgetown University Alum 394 Musil, Jakub The University of Edinburgh PhD candidate 395 Nakamura, Megan University of Florida 396 Namboodiripad, Savithry University of Michigan Assistant Professor 397 Narayan, Chandan York University Linguistics Assoc Professor 398 Nederveen, Sander Simon Fraser University/University of British Columbia MA/PhD student 399 Nelson, Brett University of Calgary PhD Candidate 400 Nelson, Scott Stony Brook University 401 Nesbitt, Monica Dartmouth College Postdoctoral Researcher 402 Newell, Heather UQAM Professor 403 Ng, Sara University of Washington PhD student 404 Nguyen, Chieu Google Japan Computational Linguist 405 Nguyen, Emma University of Connecticut PhD student 406 Niedzielski, Nancy Rice University Associate Professor 407 Nielsen, Kuniko Oakland University Associate Professor 408 Nölle, Jonas University of Edinburgh PhD Candidate 409 Noonan, Máire Université de Montréal & Université du Québec à Montréal, course lecturer 410 Norris, Mark 411 Nowlan, Melody 412 Nycz, Jennifer Georgetown University Associate Professor 413 O’Gorman, Tim University of Massachusetts Amherst Postdoctoral Researcher 414 O’Hara, Charlie University of Southern California 415 O’Meara, Carolyn Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Associate Research Professor 416 O’Neill, Brittney York University PhD student 417 Orfitelli, Robyn University of Sheffield Lecturer 418 Ostrove, Jason UC Santa Cruz Lecturer 419 Overfelt, Carly 420 Pabst, Katharina University of Toronto Ph.D. Candidate 421 Palma, Pauline McGill University PhD student 422 Papillon, Maxime University of Maryand 423 Parrish, Alicia New York University Grad student 424 Parrott, Jeffrey Keith Department of English and American Studies, Palacký University in Olomouc Assistant Professor of Linguistics 425 Pasquinelli, Renni Johns Hopkins University PhD Student 426 Pasternak, Robert Leibniz-Center for General Linguistics Postdoctoral Researcher 427 Pater, Joe University of Massachusetts Amherst Professor 428 Patton, Colleen University of Arizona PhD Candidate 429 Paul, Ileana University of Western Ontario Associate Professor 430 Paullada, Amandalynne University of Washington PhD Candidate, Linguistics 431 Payne, Amanda 432 Payne, Elena University of Cambridge Student 433 Payne, Elinor University of Oxford Associate Professor 434 Pearce, Jo University of Glasgow PhD Student 435 Pearson, Hazel Queen Mary University of London Senior Lecturer 436 Perez Borbon, Luz University of Massachusetts Boston PhD student 437 Perfors, Amy University of Melbourne Associate Professor 438 Perleberg, Ellen University of Washington Undergraduate 439 Peters, Andrew University of Toronto PhD Candidate 440 Pham, Mike 441 Piggott, Glyne McGill University Emeritus Professor 442 Pillion, Betsy University of Chicago PhD Candidate 443 Pinzin, Francesco Goethe Universität Frankfurt Postdoctoral researcher 444 Plumb, May Helena University of Texas at Austin PhD Candidate 445 Pollio-Barbee, Harper Brandeis University Undergraduate Student 446 Potter, David Morehead State University Post-doc 447 Potvin, Gabrielle 448 Pratt, Teresa San Francisco State University Assistant Professor 449 Preminger, Omer University of Maryland Associate Professor 450 Prichard, Hilary Linguistics PhD 451 Prickett, Brandon 452 Puderbaugh, Rebekka University of Edinburgh Teaching Fellow 453 Punske, Jeffrey Southern Illinois University Carbondale Associate Professor & Director of Undergraduate Studies 454 Purse, Ruaridh University of Pennsylvania PhD Candidate 455 Raclaw, Joshua West Chester University Assistant Professor 456 Rademacher, Tess Former LSA Intern 457 Rasin, Ezer Leipzig University Postdoctoral Researcher 458 Rawlins, Kyle Johns Hopkins University Associate Professor 459 Reed, Paul E. University of Alabama Assistant professor 460 Rees, Alice University of Edinburgh Research Fellow 461 Rehrig, G. UC Davis Postdoctoral Researcher 462 Reiss, Charles Concordia University, Montreal Professor 463 Remirez, Emily UC Berkeley PhD Candidate 464 Rett, Jessica UCLA Professor and Director of Graduate Studies 465 Richardson-Todd, Aurore PhD student 466 Richie, Russell University of Pennsylvania Postdoctoral Fellow 467 Ritch, Joseph University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa MA Student 468 Roberts, Brice University of California, Los Angeles PhD Candidate 469 Roberts, Julie University of Vermont Professor and Director 470 Robinson, Mary NYU PhD student 471 Robles, Jessica S. Loughborough University Lecturer 472 Rodriguez, Alejandro UC San Diego PhD Student 473 Ronkos, Danielle The Graduate Center, CUNY Ph.D. Candidate 474 Rosa, Jonathan Stanford University Associate Professor 475 Rosen, Nicole University of Manitoba Professor 476 Rosenau, Sara CU Boulder Graduate Student 477 Rouvier, Ruth University of California, Berkeley PhD Candidate 478 Rouvinen, Alina Student 479 Rowe, Margaret Anne Georgetown University Alum 480 Royer, Adam UCLA Linguistics PhD Candidate 481 Royer, Justin McGill University PhD Student 482 Sampson, Tory University of California, San Diego PhD Student 483 Sanchez, Roger Universidade Federal de Belo Horizonte, Brazil PhD 484 Sandoval, Starr graduate student 485 Sandy, Abu El Adas NYU PhD student/worker 486 Sayeed, Asad University of Gothenburg Assistant Professor 487 Scarpace, Daniel University of Texas at Arlington Assistant Professor of Instruction 488 Scheffler, Tatjana University of Potsdam Postdoctoral Researcher 489 Schlegl, Lisa Univeristy of Toronto PhD Student 490 Schneier, Joel University of Central Florida Lecturer 491 Seals, Corinne Victoria University of Wellington Senior Lecturer 492 Sears, Cheyenne Ohio University Alum 493 Semushina, Nina UCSD PhD candidate 494 Seong, Jihye The State University of New York at Buffalo Ph.D. Student 495 Shames, Kayla Matthea Cornell University Undergraduate Student 496 Shan, Chung-chieh Indiana University Associate Professor 497 Shapiro, Mary Truman State University Professor of Linguistics 498 Shenkar, Julia George Mason University Alum 499 Sherley-Appel, Clara UCSC, UVA Linguistics MA 500 Showers-Curtis, Katka University of Wisconsin – Madison Graduate Student 501 Shukla, Mohinish 502 Shulist, Sarah Queen’s University Associate Professor 503 Sichel, Ivy UC Santa Cruz Associate Professor 504 Sicoli, Mark A University of Virginia Assistant Professor 505 Simpson, Erin UCL Institute of Education PhD student 506 Sims, Nandi Ohio State University PhD Candidate 507 Singerman, Adam Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow 508 Sirna, Sarah Michigan State University 509 Skilton, Amalia University of Texas at Austin Postdoctoral Researcher 510 Slayton, Aliya University of Hawai’i at Mānoa PhD student 511 Slobe, Tyanna University of California Los Angeles PhD Candidate 512 Smith, Alexander D. University of North Texas 513 Smith, Barry University at Buffalo Professor & Chair 514 Smith, James 515 Smith, Kaylin Michigan State University PhD candidate 516 Sneller, Betsy Michigan State University Assistant Professor 517 Snider, Todd Postdoctoral Research Fellow 518 Soldaini, Luca Amazon Applied Scientist 519 Sommerlot, Carly J. University of Texas at Arlington Ph.D. Candidate 520 Sprenger, Anna-Marie UChicago graduate student 521 Staicov, Adina Hiroshima University Assistant Professor 522 Stalley, Sean 523 Stephens, Heather University of Toronto PhD Candidate 524 Stickles, Elise University of British Columbia Assistant Professor 525 Stromdahl, Lars University of Delaware PhD Student 526 Strother-Garcia, Kristina Bloomsburg University Assistant Professor 527 Subtirelu, Nicholas Georgetown University Assistant Professor 528 Sullivant, Ryan University of Texas at Austin 529 Sundaresan, Sandhya 530 Sunil Arvindam, Vishal 531 Surbatovich, Amy Editor 532 Sutherland, Paul American Philosophical Society Archivist, Linguist 533 Szabó, Ildikó Emese New York University PhD candidate 534 Tabachnick, Guy New York University graduate student 535 Talmina, Natalia Johns Hopkins University PhD student 536 Taniguchi, Ai University of Toronto Mississauga Assistant Professor 537 Taylor, Katherine The Ohio State University Alum 538 Thomas, Airica Northwestern University PhD Student 539 Thomas, Jenelle University of Oxford 540 Thomas, William The Ohio State University PhD Student 541 Thompson, Anie H5/University of California Santa Cruz Consulting Linguist and PhD alum 542 Thompson, Ellen Florida International University Professor 543 Thompson, Katrina University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor 544 Thoms, Gary New York University Assistant Professor 545 Tomlin, Nicholas UC Berkeley PhD Student 546 Torbert, Benjamin University of Missouri-St Louis Associate professor 547 Torgersen, Henrik University of Oslo MA student 548 Tran, Marcellin University of Toronto Student 549 Travis, Lisa McGill University Professor Emeritus 550 Tulsyan, Purnima 551 Turnbull, Rory Newcastle University Lecturer 552 Turner, Gerry York University PhD Candidate 553 Turner, Robin University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign PhD student 554 Twiner, Nicholas Stanford University Graduate Student 555 Tyler, Matthew Yale University PhD candidate 556 Tyrone, Martha Long Island University Associate Professor 557 Ulfsbjorninn, Shanti University of Deusto, Bilbao. Associate Professor 558 Umbal, Pocholo University of Toronto PhD Candidate 559 Usta, Betül Seda University of Stirling PhD student 560 Valentinsson, Mary-Caitlyn Appalachian State University Visiting Assistant Professor 561 van den Akker, M. Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands Undergraduate 562 VanderStouwe, Chris Boise State University Lecturer 563 Vaughan, Alfie University of Cambridge Undergraduate 564 Vihman, Marilyn University of York Professor 565 Vihman, Virve University of Tartu Associate Professor 566 Villanueva, Mercedes Eileen 567 Vittalbabu, Chandru Sunnyvale School District Speech-Language Pathologist and Linguistics graduate 568 Vu, Mai Ha University of Delaware Alum 569 Walkden, George University of Konstanz Professor of Linguistics 570 Warner, Natasha University of Arizona Professor and Head 571 Warren, Isaac Georgetown University MS Student 572 Wassink, Alicia University of Washington 573 Weinberg, Miranda Swarthmore College Visiting Assistant Professor, Linguistics 574 Wells, Alexus Georgetown University 575 Whitcomb, Kathleen 576 Williams, Adina Research Scientist 577 Wilson, Brianna University of Chicago PhD Student 578 Wilson, Fiona University of Toronto Graduate Student 579 Wilson, Scott Keohookalani Pukyong National University Lecturer 580 Wing, Dakota York University PhD Candidate 581 Wingett, Hannah Georgetown University Alum, BA Linguistics + MS Theoretical Linguistics 582 Winterstein, Grégoire UQAM Professor 583 Wolf, Simon Unaffiliated Independent Researcher and Consultant 584 Wood, Skye Virginia Tech Alum 585 Wright, Kelly Elizabeth University of Michigan PhD Candidate 586 Yeaton, Jeremy UC Irvine PhD student in Language Science 587 Yoshida Nuttall, Kelly Boise State University 588 Young, Eris Writer 589 Yuan, Michelle University of California, San Diego Assistant Professor 590 Zaitsu, Anissa Stanford University PhD student 591 Zimman, Lal UC Santa Barbara Associate Professor of Linguistics 592 Zompi, Stanislao 593 Zweig, Eytan University of York Lecturer