In faculty discussions recently we have tried to think about the place of fieldwork methodology in our graduate program. A field methods course is one obvious option. However, such courses typically study just one language for twenty to thirty weeks. Often this narrow language focus does not align well with the majority of students' research interests. In searching for a new approach, we have become aware of a modus vivendi called the "laboratory model", where the focus is not on coursework but on the research that people are actually doing. It has occurred to us to try to adapt this model to fieldwork. We propose a Fieldwork Laboratory (FWL) (mostly virtual, since at the beginning we won't need any dedicated space), which would begin as a regular meeting of those interested in or engaged in linguistic fieldwork (i.e. any linguistic investigation that involves the collection of intuitions about grammaticality from individual native speakers). We will meet every week or every two weeks; participants will bring problems and questions from their fieldwork for discussion. Sandy and I will start (on April 16) by each talking about one problem we have encountered in fieldwork and how we tried to solve it. After that, the meetings will be driven by the needs and interests of the participants. Interested parties should email to Jorge Hankamer [hank@ucsc.edu].
Lab Participants:
Pranav Anand
Marcela Depiante
Alexa Mater
Judith Fiedler
Scott Anderbois
Gigi Ying