33.3394, All: Staff Letter: Amalia Robinson

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-33-3394. Wed Nov 02 2022. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 33.3394, All: Staff Letter: Amalia Robinson

Moderators:

Editor for this issue: Billy Dickson <billyd at linguistlist.org>
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Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2022 21:01:40
From: Billy Dickson [billyd at linguistlist.org]
Subject: Staff Letter: Amalia Robinson

 
Dear Fellow Linguists, 

My name is Amalia Robinson, and I am a second year M.A. student in General
Linguistics at Indiana University. I’ve had the pleasure of working as a
Reviews Editor and Invoicing Officer at the LINGUIST List since January of
2022, though I’m currently just assisting part-time with invoicing and billing
for paid announcements ton the LINGUIST List site. 

When I started graduate school in the Fall of 2021, I was excited but also
very unsure how I was going to be able to continue to afford my graduate
studies long-term without a graduate assistantship . I’m so thankful for the
opportunity to work at the LINGUIST List. The tuition remission and stipend
has provided me with financial stability and incredible peace of mind,
allowing me to focus on my studies and continue to pursue my graduate degree.
Additionally, it has provided me with the unique opportunity to learn more
about many areas of linguistics as I correspond with linguists from different
fields around the globe.

My familiarity with the LINGUIST List began well before I started working as a
graduate assistant here. Becoming a linguist had been a dream of mine for many
years, but my undergraduate institution did not have a linguistics program. I
decided to pursue my B.A. in Spanish with a minor in Speech and Language
Pathology, but without access to a professor or mentor with any background in
linguistics, it was up to me to figure out how to prepare myself for entering
grad school in the field. The freely available information on jobs,
internships, and linguistics programs on the LINGUIST List was so instrumental
throughout my graduate school search and application process. I honestly think
I might not be here at Indiana University accomplishing my goal of a Master’s
degree in Linguistics without the LINGUIST List. It is for this reason that
I’m so passionate about the LINGUIST List’s mission of community outreach. At
least in the United States, there are relatively few universities that have
well established linguistics programs. For those of us from interdisciplinary
backgrounds seeking to enter the field, having a resource that makes the field
more transparent and accessible is so vital. I’m thrilled to be able to give
back to the linguistics community through my work at the LINGUIST List. 

My current research interests range from the sociolinguistics of /s/
aspiration in Chilean Spanish and rhoticity in African American Language in
Boston, to third-wave variationist sociolinguistics approaches to quantifying
traditionally qualitative variables like place orientation and ethnic
orientation. One of my primary projects over the past year has been doing
fieldwork with the Lutuv language, an under-documented Tibeto-Burman language
spoken in the Burmese refugee community in Indianapolis. Drawing upon my
background in the Public Humanities, I’m especially interested in dual-purpose
research in linguistics, which seeks to engage with speech communities in the
knowledge building process and produce resources that can be utilized by both
linguists and speakers alike, such as children’s books, online corpora, and
other language materials. I’m fascinated by discussions of ethics and
reciprocity in linguistics and related fields,, as well as the intersections
between language, justice, and identity. 

When I’m not in linguist mode, I enjoy running 5k’s, listening to true crime
podcasts, and spending time in the great outdoors. I love tasting new dishes
from the world’s cuisines, especially at the many international restaurants
here in Bloomington (I’m always looking for recommendations!) 

Sincerely,

Amalia Robinson
 


Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable



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LINGUIST List: Vol-33-3394	
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