Join Us
How to join our lab
Current graduate students
If you’re a current graduate student at UM, you are welcome to join us! Just send me a message to get our lab meeting invites, and let me know if you want to work on a lab-related project and set up regular one-on-one meetings. You’re welcome to just attend lab meetings for starters and take it from there.
Prospective graduate students
If you are interested in pursuing graduate work with the WordLab, the best route is to apply to University of Michigan’s PhD program in linguistics! You do not need to commit to a specific advisor or lab when applying, but you can mention your interest in working with me and any other faculty or research groups in your application statement. More information about graduate admissions for our department can be found on our admissions page, and you can see the range of research interests of our faculty on our departmental research page.
Honors thesis students at University of Michigan
If you are interested in working with the lab for your honors thesis, email me with the subject line “Honors Thesis” and a brief description of what you are hoping to work on. It’s OK if you are generally interested in this area of research and don’t yet have a specific project idea, especially if you are still in your junior year. More information about honors thesis requirements and policies can be found on these pages for linguistics and cognitive science.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
As of November 2023, I do not have availability to advise additional undergraduate RAs, though I’m happy to discuss 2024-2025 honors theses with students (see above). If you are interested in joining the lab next academic year, the best time to contact me would be May 2024. If my availability changes before then I will update this note.
If you are interested in working with the lab as an undergraduate research assistant, email me with the subject line “WordLab RA Position”. Please explain briefly why you are interested in our lab, what your background is in linguistics and/or psychology, and whether you have any specific language or technical skills that might be relevant (for example, much of our work involves Python or R coding). There are a variety of lab-related tasks, so there are no specific pre-requisites, but this helps to determine whether you would be a good fit for projects in progress at the time of your application.
Usually students start out in the lab through the UROP program or through volunteer or for-credit independent study work. UROP provides funding for students who are eligible for work-study. Non-UROP funded positions are occasionally available for grant-funded projects, especially if you are eligible for work-study or if financial need would otherwise prevent you from having time to participate in research opportunities.
In my role as Director of Undergraduate Research Experiences for the linguistics department, I have also put together a slideshow used at annual open houses with some notes on finding research opportunities relating to linguistics at UM. Folks with a UM login can access that here.