Sai Samant

I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan.

Currently, I am in the process of analyzing my dissertation data, which I collected during fieldwork at a high school in Southeastern Michigan. I am investigating the spread of the Northern Cities Shift within an ethnic community. I am interested in the relationship between the linguistic and social landscape of the students and the spread of an ongoing regional sound change. Robin Queen is the chair of my dissertation committee.

I graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, with a degree in Linguistics. I wrote an undergraduate thesis on the disconnect between soclolinguistics and the rest of the world (John Rickford writes about it here more eloquently than I ever could ). My adviser was Anne Curzan, who is coincidentally now at UM, and a member of my dissertation committee. After graduation, I spent a year working before heading back to school.

I have served as the assistant for the Journal of English Linguistics. I have also been involved with the Graduate Employees' Organization, the union which represents grad student workers.

I miss the beautiful Pacific Northwest -- where I grew up -- including the rain and allegedly slow drivers but also the coffee, mountains, beer, food, and music. Ann Arbor has been great fun so far (if at times overrated).