Undergraduate Research Resources

Classes

Classes are great first steps to learn about linguistic research. You will learn how to conduct research and carry out a mini (pilot) study as a final project. For example, LING 212 will prepare you to carry out syntactic analysis, which will be helpful in natural language processing. LING 210 will teach you how to use the program PRAAT to conduct acoustic analysis.

Mentors

Identify your research interests and seek out mentors  working in those areas. Familiarize yourself with thier work by reviewing thier paper abstracts and then request an appointment to discuss potential research opportunities by sending them an email. Be specific about your interests.

Some mentors announce RA positions by email. Contact the Darnishia Bolden, the Linguistics Academic Coordinator, to be added to this listserv.

Labs

Linguistics and its affiliated programs have labs that you can apply to.

• The Language Biomarkers Lab(Phil Wolff, Director) 
• Language Acquisition Lab at Emory (Yun Kim, Director) 
• Marcus Autism Center, Spoken Communication Lab (Gordon Ramsay, Director) 
• Emory Natural Language Processing Lab(Jinho Choi, Director) 
• Speech and Language Perception Laboratory(Lynne Nygaard, Director)
  

Each lab has their own RA application process, so visit their website and follow the instructions.

Attend Symposiums

The linguistics program offers poster presentation sessions during the linguistic senior banquet where you can learn more about undergraduate research. Emory Undergraduate Research Program also hosts research symposiums and many of our undergraduates present their work.  Learn about previous presentations.

Volunteer

You can perform research as a volunteer, for credit, honors, and through a paid program/internship.This is often the best way to start, especially when you do not have your own research topic. You will work as a research assistant for mentor’s projects. Underestimate the number of committed volunteer hours; and then exceed expectations is the recommended strategy.

Credit

The following courses are available if you decide to do research for credit:

1. LING 497 Directed research: You will help mentors on their research project.
2. LING 498 Directed reading: With the help of the mentor, you will read on a topic that you want to know more.
3. LING 499 Independent research: You will conduct an original research project.

You need mentor’s approval to take these courses. The directed research/reading form must be completed and signed by you and your faculty mentor.

Emory Undergraduate Research Programs (URP) support various research and scholarship opportunities. You can receive credit or get paid through work-study if eligible. The program is available to rising second and third year students.

Students do not need previous research experience and do not need to have identified a research mentor in advance. URP offer formal academic year programs to help students find mentors.

The application for the program is typically due in May. They also provide one-on-one advising to students seeking opportunities on Emory campus and beyond.

Summer Undergraduate Research Experience

In additon, the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program is a 10-week paid summer program. This program is highly selective, and you must work with an identified mentor to write a research proposal for your application. A list of opportunities can be found on the SURE website.

If you have additional questions regarding linguistic research at Emory, please email Dr. Yun Kim, Director of Undergraduate Research in Linguistics.