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Director

head shot of Elaine J. Francis

Elaine J. Francis

PhD Students

A photo of Golsa Khodadadi. A young woman with black hair pulled back and parted on the side, with black eyes, in a tan suit.

Golsa Khodadadi

  • Ph.D. Student, Linguistics, Purdue University
  • M.A. Applied Linguistics, 2018, University of Tabriz
  • B.A. English Language and Literature, 2015, Azerbaijan Shahid Madani University
  • Interests: Syntax, Semantics, Verb Phrase Ellipsis, Sentence Processing, Psycholinguistics
  • ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Golsa-Khodadadi
  • Contact: gkhodada@purdue.edu

A photo of Jingying Hu. A woman with black hair, black eyes, and a white top smiling against a sunlit leaves in soft focus.

Jingying Hu

  • Ph.D. Student, Linguistics, Purdue University
  • M.A. TCSOL, 2022, Peking University
  • B.A. Chinese Language and Literature / Finance, 2019, University of International Business and Economics
  • Interests: Chinese linguistics, second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, predictive processing
  • ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jingying_Hu3 
  • Contact: hu880@purdue.edu

A photo of Yue Li. A woman with black hair, black eyes, and sunglasses atop her head sitting and smiling in a denim romper in an alcove.

Yue Li 

  • Ph.D. Student, Linguistics, Purdue University
  • M.A. Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, 2021, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • B.E. Electrical Engineering and Automation / English Language and Literature, 2014, Hohai University
  • Interests: language production, sentence processing, syntax-semantics interfaces, second language acquisition
  • Contact: li4207@purdue.edu

A photo of Vanessa Sheu. A woman with black hair and black eyes, smiling in a teal peacoat against a beige wall.

Vanessa Sheu

  • Ph.D. Candidate, Linguistics, Purdue University
  • M.A. TESOL, 2015, Teachers College Columbia University
  • B.A. Comparative Literature, 2009, University of Michigan
  • Interests: sentence processing, psycholinguistics, Mandarin heritage speakers
  • Homepage: https://vsheu.weebly.com/
  • Contact: sheuv@purdue.edu

Postdoctoral Researcher

Shaohua Fang

  • Ross-Lynn Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of English, Purdue University
  • Ph.D. Linguistics, 2023, University of Pittsburgh
  • M.A. Applied Linguistics, 2017, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
  • B.A. English Education and TESOL (Honors), 2014, Ningbo University
  • Interests: psycholinguistics, second language acquisition, processing of temporality, predictive processing in L2, scope phenomena, experimental research methods
  • Homepage: https://shaohua-fang.com/ 
  • Contact: fang413@purdue.edu

Research Affiliate

 
  • Associate Director, Oral English Proficiency Program, Purdue University
  • Ph.D. Second Language Studies, 2021, Indiana University Bloomington
  • M.A. Second Language Studies, 2016, Indiana University Bloomington
  • B.A. Romance Languages and Literatures, 2011, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Interests: adult second language acquisition, sentence processing, syntax, wh-dependencies, anaphora
  • Contact: krswanso@purdue.edu

Undergraduates

Marley Mack

  • Sophomore majoring in Linguistics, Political Science, and French
  • Interests: computational linguistics, case law

Lauren Matthews

Graduate Alumni

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Josh Weirick

  • Digitive
  • Former Research Scientist, Cascade Reading
  • Former Postdoctoral Fellow, Aphasia Lab, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University
  • Ph.D. Linguistics, 2021, Purdue University (advisor: Elaine Francis)
  • M.A. TESOL, 2016, Central Michigan University
  • B.S. English, 2014, Central Michigan University
  • Interests: syntactic alternations in English, the syntax-information structure interface, sentence processing, adult second language acquisition, language production and comprehension in aphasia, reading comprehension

Maria Pritchett

  • PhD. Linguistics, 2020, Purdue University (advisor: Felicia Roberts)
  • M.A. Linguistics, Purdue University
  • B.A. Calvin College
  • Interests: sociolinguistics, corpus, corpus for applied linguistics, lexical variation in online reviews, advanced second language writing studies

Carol Chun Zheng

  • Ph.D. Linguistics, 2017, Purdue University (advisor: Elaine Francis)
  • M.A. Linguistics, 2012, Purdue University
  • B.A. English Applied Linguistics, 2007, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
  • Interests: syntax-semantics interface, psycholinguistics, language processing, structural priming in language production, second language acquisition and pedagogy
  •  

Charles Lam

  • Lecturer, English for Academic Purposes, University of Leeds
  • Ph.D. Linguistics, 2015, Purdue University (advisor: Ronnie Wilbur)
  • M.A. Linguistics, 2007, Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Interests: English for academic purposes, language and culture, formal syntax and semantics, experimental syntax and semantics, digital humanities, corpus linguistics

Ethan Myers

  • GenAI Trust and Safety Specialist, Meta; Co-founder of Lyres for Hire
  • ABD, Linguistics, Northwestern University
  • M.A. Linguistics, 2015, Purdue University (advisor: Elaine Francis)
  • Interests: Generative AI ethics and safety, large language models, RPG content creation and team building, ellipsis, complementizers and discourse particles, syntactic islands, evidentiality, language preservation and documentation, minority languages in China
  •  

John Hitz

  • Associate Professor of English, University of Central Oklahoma
  • Ph.D. Second Language Studies, 2012, Purdue University (advisors: April Ginther and Elaine Francis)
  • M.S. Applied Linguistics, 1998, Georgia State University
  • Interests: Influence of the first language on Second Language Acquisition, Turkish Linguistics, Chinese Linguistics, and the relationship between language processing and grammatical representations.
  • For more information, please see his ResearchGate page.

Undergraduate Alumni

 Liz Ancel

  • Ph.D. Student at the University of Minnesota and Speech-Language Pathologist 
  • M.S. in Speech-Language Pathology, 2018, Purdue University
  • B.S. in Speech-Language Pathology, 2016, Purdue University

 Arianna Deldar

Yongjia Deng

Photo of Yongjia Deng. A young woman with black hair, black eyes, and round glasses smiling with a pastel mask below her chin.

  • Ph.D. Student in Language Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • B.A. in Linguistics, 2024, Purdue University

 Becca Duggan

 Corinne Feight

  • Professional Writer/Editor, New York 
  • B.A. in Professional Writing, Creative Writing, Photography, 2013, Purdue University

 Xuebo Gong

  • Strategic Media Planner, Beijing
  • M.S. in Marketing, University of Texas at Dallas, 2018 
  • B.A. in Public Relations, 2013, Purdue University

 Austin Keen

  • Ph.D. Student in Linguistics, Northwestern University
  • M.S. in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, 2022, Purdue University
  • B.A. in Linguistics and Asian Studies, 2018, Purdue University

 Jenna Kuhns

  • Technical Services Analyst, Indiana 
  • B.A. in Linguistics and Asian Studies, 2016, Purdue University

Ben Riggs

  • B.A. in Linguistics, 2024, Purdue University 

Morgan Robertson

 Jiaqiao Cecilia Xiao

  • Master’s student in Public Policy, University of Chicago
  • B.A. Strategic Communication and Public Relations, 2018, Purdue University

 Anna Zhang

 Miao Zhang

 Zuyang Jerry Zhang

  • Ph.D. Student, Waseda University
  • M.A. in Linguistics and Cultural Studies, Nagoya University
  • B.A. Linguistics, 2019, Purdue University
  • Interests: second language acquisition, language typology, syntax, language teaching