ACLC Newsletter October 2020
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The ACLC welcomes many new members!
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Harriet Reynolds
 Hello, I’m Harriet and I’ve just started a PhD on the acquisition of topic in typically developing and autistic children and adolescents, with Jeannette Schaeffer as my advisor. I’m originally from a small and uneventful village in the southwest of the UK, which I eventually escaped by doing a BA in Modern Languages at the University of Sheffield.
As someone who enjoys a healthy amount of challenge and adventure I chose to take up Czech and Polish as part of my studies, as well as continuing with French. This somehow led me to an incredibly boring desk job in Prague and to burying myself in linguistic textbooks on my daily commute. I took this as a sign that I was not done studying, and enrolled myself in the Research Masters at the University of Amsterdam. During my Masters, I became fascinated by the interaction between cognition and language, and began working with Jeannette on projects involving autism as a way to explore this.
In my free time, I attempt to stay zen by doing yoga and enjoy telling stories and weird facts to my friends. You can currently find me in room 6.50 in PCH on Mondays and Thursdays.
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Jenia Khristoforova
My name is Jenia [ˈʐɛnʲə] Khristoforova. I was born in Moscow and that is also where I obtained my BA in General and Applied Linguistics. In the course of last two years I have been enjoying the warm and vibrant atmosphere of Linguistics department in UvA as a Research Master student. During my education, I was getting more and more interested in Sign Language linguistics. I got curious how such visual languages are structured, how different they are to spoken languages, and what this comparison can tell us about the human language capacity.
For my PhD project, I am going to investigate complex sentences in Russian Sign Language and Sign Language of the Netherlands and how they come about in the course of language development. For this project, I am lucky to have Roland Pfau and Enoch Aboh as my supervisors and become a part of Sign Language Grammar and Typology research group.
Outside of academia, I am a massive fan of outdoor sports of any kind (primarily bouldering), traveling and self-education. You can find me in 6.48 (currently, only on Mondays and Fridays).
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Lani Freeborn
The title of my PhD research project is Second language learning and the development of foreign language aptitude. The aim of this research is to explore how individual differences mediate components of aptitude and second language development at different stages of the learning process. My project is supervised by Sible Andringa and Judith Rispens. My office is 4.39 at the PC Hoofthuis.
I became interested in this topic and the construct of aptitude through teaching English as a second language. I am originally from England and I have taught English in several countries including Portugal, Cambodia, and Hong Kong. Besides linguistics, I love travelling, cooking, trying out new restaurants with friends, and watching Korean melodramas.
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Marise Neijman
Hello! My name is Marise Neijman, and I have just started as a PhD candidate and Speech and Language Pathologist (SLP) at the Netherlands Cancer Institute – Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital (NKI-AVL). The name of my PhD project is: "Functional Outcomes After a Total Laryngectomy." My supervisors are Prof. Dr. Michiel van den Brekel (Promotor), Dr. Lisette van der Molen (Co-Promotor), and Dr. Rob van Son (Co-Promotor).
I am 26 years old, and I live in Leiden with my boyfriend and our hamster Håmr. I used to work as an SLP for four years in different nursing homes and hospitals, which I combined with my master's Clinical Health Sciences: Speech and Hearing Sciences at Utrecht University. Last July, I finished my master's with a thesis written at the NCI-AVL.
I usually spend my free time lifting weights at the gym, bouldering at the boulder wall, swimming a few lengths, or walking with my (parents') dog. Gardening, woodworking projects, watching series, playing games, seeing friends, and learning how to play the piano are also hobbies of mine.
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Wenwen Guan
My name is Wenwen Guan. I come from Qingdao, China. I hold a MA in English Language and Literature from Renmin University of China and used to do corpus translation studies. I will work with Prof. Bertus van Rooy and Dr. Rose van der Zwaard from November 2020 on my PhD project. The project approaches metadiscourse in spoken L2 English using a corpus method. The idea of studying metadiscourse grew out of my observation of English learners whose first language is Chinese. Compared to English, a typical language rich of metadiscourse, Chinese does not rely much on metadiscourse to fulfil the textual and interpersonal function. This feature seems to be partly transferred in L2 English. But what in depth? Differences? Causes? Pedagogical implications? I will answer the questions from a multilingual perspective. Besides, I am interested in computational linguistics so meanwhile, I will improve the automatic annotation methods of metadiscourse. Outside study, I love photography, travelling, sports and making good food. I never reject things to enrich my life.
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Anne-Mieke Thieme
My name is Anne-Mieke Thieme, I’m turning 25 soon, and I live in The Hague. Some of you might already know me, because I’ve been involved in various projects at the ACLC for a year or so. I have now started working for Project MIND, with Folkert Kuiken, Suzanne Aalberse, Sible Andringa, Josje Verhagen, Darlene Keydeniers, and Eva Vos. We will be visiting bilingual daycare centres in October (hopefully, given corona!) to track toddlers’ language development in Dutch and English.
My own subproject will be geared more towards the social side of linguistics; after all, my specialisations during my Research Master in Leiden were sociolinguistics and multilingualism. You can find me in PC Hoofthuis 4.36 on Mondays and Tuesdays, if I’m not working from home or visiting a daycare centre.
In my free time I am currently involved in a volunteer project against the labour exploitation of migrant workers. On the weekends, I love cooking and baking, visiting museums, dancing, and playing boardgames with friends. If it’s not too rainy, I also enjoy visiting the beach, like I was doing on the attached photo, as you can see!
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Monique Flecken
My name is Monique Flecken, and I just started as UD in Neurolinguistics & Multilingualism. I am specialized in using EEG and eye-tracking to study the relation between language and other domains of cognition (perception, memory). I am excited to push this research line into new directions, and to set up new collaborations, at the ACLC! After being a researcher at the MPI for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen for years, I am really happy to take this next step, and to be more involved with teaching. I am actually originally from Nijmegen, but I have lived in Amsterdam for a long time, so all this time I have commuted from Amsterdam to Nijmegen – glad that is over, and that I finally get to know the city I live in!
I live together with my partner and our two sons, so when I am not working, I am busy with the kids, or hanging out at home with friends – one of my favorite pastimes is to have friends over, drink good wine and cook something nice. I hope to see you soon! You can find me, sometimes, in PCH 6.44.
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Natalia Rivera Vera new ACLC PhD representative
ACLC is happy to announce that Natalia Rivera Vera is the new ACLC PhD representative. In this role, she represents the ACLC PhD community in the PhD Council Board, the Graduate Study Committee and the ACLC Advisory Board. Read more
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Antal van den Bosch appointed professor by special appointment of Language and Artificial Intelligence
Prof. A.P.J. van den Bosch (1969) has been appointed professor by special appointment of Language and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Amsterdam’s (UvA) Faculty of Humanities. The special chair was established by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Van den Bosch will combine his chair at the UvA with his directorship of the KNAW Meertens Institute. Read more
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Viktorija Kostadinova awarded U21 Researcher Resilience Fund
Viktorija Kostadinova has been awarded the U21 Researcher Resilience Fund for the project 'Linguistic Data Collection in the age of a Pandemic'. Partner Universities are KU Leuven and the University of Edinburgh. Read more
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ACLC Seminar | Roland Pfau & Annemieke van Kampen (UvA/Kentalis)
9 October 16:15 - 17:30
Roland Pfau and Annemieke van Kampen, who participated as representatives of the Netherlands in ‘SIGN-HUB’, a European Horizon 2020 project, are the guest speakers at this ACLC seminar. The title of their talk is "More than a Treasure: Life Stories of Elderly Deaf Signers". Read more
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ACLC Seminar | Klaske van Sluis (UvA, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek)
16 October 16:15 - 17:30
Klaske van Sluis, PhD candidate at the ACLC and Speech Language Pathologist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital, is the guest speaker at this ACLC seminar. The title and abstract of her talk will be published soon on the ACLC website. Read more
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ACLC Seminar | Dr Mark de Vries (RUG)
30 October 16:15 - 17:30
Mark de Vries, associate professor at the University of Groningen, is the guest speaker at this ACLC seminar. The title and abstract of his talk will be published soon on the ACLC website. Read more
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Research Fair 2020: Save the date!
Dear all,
After last year’s successful fourth edition, we are again organizing the Research Fair this year for master students of linguistics. The Research Fair will take place on November 20, 2020, and starts at 15:00. This year the event will be held online. More information on the programme and the online format will follow soon. For now, save the date!
To refresh your memory on the purpose of the event: the Research Fair gives a platform to PhD-students, researchers and teachers to present their research to (r)MA students. The purpose is to make the linguistic research we do at the UvA more visible to current students, and recruit students who can help us with our projects, e.g. by collecting data or investigating a research question we otherwise wouldn’t have the time to explore. For students, the Research Fair will hopefully inspire them to get their thesis or other research projects (tutorials, research assistantships) going.
More info to follow soon!
Best,
Darlene, Jenia and Cindy
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Sune Gregersen
20 October 12:00 Agnietenkapel
Sune Gregersen, ACLC PhD candidate, will defend his dissertation 'Early English modals: Form, function, and analogy', under the supervision of Olga Fischer and Jan Nuyts. Read more
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Call for Proposals | Research Innovation and Sustainability Fund 2020
The UvA Faculty of Humanities offers the Research Innovation and Sustainability (RIS) Fund that aims at supporting staff with research time in their career development and expanding their opportunities to conduct research. Through the RIS Fund staff can apply for temporary teaching release in order to have more time to write grant applications, or to finish one or more (substantial, strategic) publications so as to strengthen their track record for an upcoming grant application. Read more
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