Shelece Easterday

In the Department of Linguistics, Professor Shelece Easterday infects her students with the same sense of joy that she finds in research and teaching and she sees that students find phonological phenomena and concepts in global crosslinguistic contexts to be highly appealing. “I always feel I learn a semesters’ worth of linguistics in a single semester” and “Having the final project be creating our own problem set is really interesting and challenging.” A colleague notes that she is one of only a handful of specialists in her area as it is both fairly new and requires a deep understanding of all aspects of the sounds of language, including physical articulation, auditory perception, and cognitive and social pressures. At the graduate level, a student writes: “Dr. Easterday has been an integral part of my work as a graduate student and as a linguist.” “My graduate career would be less fulfilling and constructive for me without Dr. Easterday and I am eternally grateful to have such a kind, honest, and intelligent mentor in my life.”