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General Questions

If you have any questions or would like to find out more about the Purdue Experimental Linguistics Lab (ExLing), please feel free to contact either: Elaine J. Francis (Lab Director) at ejfranci@purdue.edu or Yue Li (Ph.D. Student) at li4207@purdue.edu. 

Prospective Graduate Students

Please note: Elaine Francis regrets that she will be unable to supervise any new graduate students for the upcoming cycle (applying in fall 2025 and entering in August 2026). 

Please note that individual faculty are not able to admit students for M.A. or Ph.D. Graduate admission decisions are made by the Graduate Committee of the Linguistics Department. If you are interested in applying to the M.A. or Ph.D. program in Linguistics at Purdue, please carefully read the information for prospective students on the Linguistics Department website to see whether the program meets your needs. Questions about the graduate program can be directed to the Head of Department, Prof. Alejandro Cuza, the Director of Graduate Studies, Prof. Olga Dmitrieva, or to graduate secretary Aimee Mansfield. 

If you are interested in possibly working with Elaine Francis, please read the lab webpages and some of her papers first, and then contact her directly by email at ejfranci@purdue.edu about your interest well before the December 15 application deadline. While she is happy to email with you about your research interests and whether they are a good fit for her lab, she will be unable to provide specific feedback on your application materials.

Prospective Undergraduate Interns, Research Assistants, and Postdocs

We are currently seeking three undergraduate research interns for the Spring 2026 semester through the Margo Katherine Wilke Undergraduate Research Internship Program. The Wilke program offers a $500 scholarship and the opportunity to participate in and assist with a research project and to present your work in the spring undergraduate research conference.
 
To apply for the position, please login to the OUR Connect website and find our project titled “Why do we say the things we do? Studying patterns in relative clause placement.” It is listed under the Margo Katherine Wilke program for Spring 2026. There you will find more details about the project and the duties of the undergraduate interns. We are seeking up to three interns to work on the same project. The interns will be working under the supervision of Linguistics Ph.D. student Jingying Hu and Prof. Elaine Francis.
 
For best consideration, please submit your application by January 17, 2026. We are happy to answer any questions by email: Elaine Francis (ejfranci@purdue.edu), Jingying Hu (hu880@purdue.edu).

Please note: The lab currently has no paid positions available for undergraduate or graduate research assistants or for postdoctoral researchers. If such positions become available, they will be posted on our Recruitment page.