Naomi Fox

I know what you’re thinking: “it’s fund drive season—here we go again...” (or if you’re more like me “it’s fund drive season again already?”). I’m at that point where Grad School (with capital letters, no less) seems to stretch on endlessly before and behind my current position in time. However, thoughts of fund drive lead me to reflect on the beginning of my career in linguistics, which is inseparable from Linguist List.

I remember that first magical moment when it all ‘clicked’ for me. I was sitting in the first day of Anthony Aristar’s History of English class, and I thought “This is IT!”. I was hooked on linguistics and I had just realized that some people actually got to do linguistics for a living. I was fortunate to have entered a program where Linguist List was housed and began begging for a job. (I didn’t really know what I was getting into, but that’s another story...) I quit my teaching job, started living on a grad student salary and eating lots of ramen, and never looked back.

LINGUIST had quite an influence on me. Through my work on the site and the postings, I gained an awareness of the linguistics community and familiarity with the field. I found that linguistics is a nice discipline in many ways. I had interchanges with notable (just–call–me–SuperStar) linguists, and they acted just like other normal people, treating me with courtesy even though I was just a lowly grad student.

Through my work on the E-MELD (Electronic Metastructure for Endangered Languages Data) and DATA (Dena’ina Archiving, Training, and Access) projects, I became aware of the issue of language endangerment and began a track toward my current research: language description, fieldwork with endangered language communities, and collaboration with those communities.

I graduated from Wayne State University in 2005 and left LINGUIST to begin the PhD program at the University of Utah with anticipation accompanied by a bit of nervousness. But I found my experiences to be a good preparation for the challenges which I have encountered. Since I began my studies at the University of Utah I have received the merit-based Wick Miller scholarship from the Department of Linguistics for two years (2005/2006), the Helmut Esau Award for best graduate student paper at the conference of the Linguistics Society of the Southwest (LASSO 2006), a fellowship to the Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute (2007), and a grant from the Jacobs Fund (2007) which allowed me to begin fieldwork on an endangered language of Mexico last fall. I have presented at several conferences, and I continue to actively participate in departmental and professional activities. I have been the chair of the Department of Linguistics graduate student organization (GSAC) since fall 2006 (co-chair in 2006/7); a member of the organizing or review committees for 4 conferences, including student and professional conferences; and a facilitator/organizer for various language-related activities for Native American communities including summer language institutes and workshops in language recording and digitization. I continue to provide ongoing consultation for local Native groups on language technology and to work toward the development of language learning materials as a product of collaborative field research.

The environment at LINGUIST was one of collaboration and cooperative effort, which was very influential on my early career. The level of individual talent and initiative was so high among LINGUIST staff, I found myself challenged to give my best efforts. Being surrounded by others with diverse research interests led to an interchange of views and broadening of research interests. I formed lasting relationships with my coworkers, and in some instances engaged in collaborative research projects and interchanges which are still continuing.

When you support LINGUIST, you are not only supporting the leading comprehensive field-specific website in academic circles, you are also supporting the development of the future of the field of linguistics. Look at the careers of past and future students—LINGUIST does not just consist of staff working for a paycheck, but fosters the development of well-rounded scholars who will be valuable contributors to our field for many years. I encourage you to consider a donation to LINGUIST as an investment in the future of linguistics.

Naomi Fox
Center for American Indian Languages
Department of Linguistics
University of Utah

See Naomi's LINGUIST List personal page while she was a crew member!