CU Linguistics Professor and Chair Laura A. Michaelis has received a聽2022-2023 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award. In the words of Scott Adler, Dean of the Graduate School, the dossier submitted on Prof. Michaelis' behalf "is聽full of praise for the help and encouragement [she gives] to graduate students鈥澛燼nd situates her as one of our "outstanding faculty who are willing to give so much of their time, energy, and intellect in supporting graduate students and the mission of graduate education.鈥� In her CU faculty career, Prof. Michaelis has advised or co-advised 11 PhD students writing dissertations in the general area of corpus-based聽syntax and semantics. These聽works employ聽a range of methodologies from psycholinguistics to computational modeling, and target a range of languages including Arapaho, Vietnamese, Basque, Mandarin and Modern Standard Arabic.聽Most of her former advisees聽now have language or linguistics-related careers in academics or industry. She聽currently serves as advisor or co-advisor to five PhD students. A doctoral student of Charles Fillmore at Berkeley, Prof. Michaelis belongs to a rich within the field of linguistics.聽聽
Upon the announcement of her receipt of the award, Prof. Michaelis remarked to the Linguistics department, "When people ask me how I like my job, my response is sometimes 'It鈥檚 the best gig in the world!'聽and at other times: 'It鈥檚 better than a real job!'聽It feels more like a dream, primarily because I get to mind-meld with, or at least laugh with, you-- imaginative, compassionate, creative, challenging, never-quite-satisfied thinkers--every day. I鈥檓 grateful there鈥檚 a place for us."