Jennifer Wilson

I'll just start by saying that I have so very much to be thankful for. Seriously, if you happen to be one of the few people who read this entire page, you'll probably get tired of all the "fortunate enough"s and "lucky enough"s, but they're all true. I grew up in a rather poor rural area and some days I wonder how I was lucky enough (see, there's the first) to get to where I am now. I won't gush sentimental about the people who believed in me and through their support are helping me live my dream, but it would not be hard to do so. I may be a very busy linguist, but have no doubt that I am a very happy and grateful one as well. With that in mind, here's where my education has and is still taking me:

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

I'm incredibly excited to be able to say that I have just recently been awarded a three-year doctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology beginning in January 2012. The funding will allow me to continue my work on Yeri with the goal of producing a grammar of the Torricelli language. I am looking forward to begining my future adventures in Germany and to having the chance to learn from such wonderful linguists as those at the Institute.

Yapunda Village, Papua New Guinea

While perhaps not a traditional education, there is no doubt that I received (and am still receiving) an education from the Yeri people. Enthusiastic speakers spent three months teaching me their language and will be continuing my language lessons in summer 2012. Trying to learn and understand the intricacies of the Yeri plural system, verbal system, phonological system and so much more has certainly kept me on my toes.

University at Buffalo

This is currently my fourth year at the University at Buffalo where I have been incredibly lucky enough to learn from linguists like: Dr. Matthew Dryer, Dr. Jeff Good, Dr. Karin Michelson, Dr. Juergen Bohnemeyer and Dr. Rui Chaves. Despite being incredibly busy with their own research, they have all been willing and enthusiastic to help me grow as a linguist, both as a researcher and as a teacher. With my good fortune in receiving a fellowship to study at UB, I have been given the chance over the last three years to gain experience in course design, teaching, and overall course management. So far I've had the pleasure of acting as teaching assistant or as course instructor for the following courses:

• LIN 106 - Languages of the World: Teaching Assistant, Fall 08
  
• LIN 206 - Language Society and the Individual: Teaching Assistant, Spring 09
• LIN 205 - Introduction to Linguistic Analysis: Teaching Assistant, Fall 09 and Fall 11
• LIN 355 - Child Language Development: Teaching Assistant, Spring 10
• LIN 205 - Introduction to Linguistic Analysis, Course Instructor, Spring 11

During Fall 2010, I was also happy to act as a research assistant to Dr. Matthew Dryer.

The College of William & Mary

Before I attended the University at Buffalo, I was fortunate enough to complete my Bachelor's degree at the College of William and Mary, one of the most academically-challenging public colleges in Virginia. I graduated summa cum laude from W&M in 2008 with a major in linguistics and a minor in TESL/TEFL (Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language). My senior year I was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa for outstanding academic achievement. While at William and Mary, I received high honors for a Senior Honors Thesis I completed with the help of my thesis committee (Dr. Ann Reed, Wang Xiao Laoshi, and Dr. Katherine Kulick). Thanks to their guidence I was able to complete a thesis analyzing the foreign language learner's use of sortal classifiers and morphological cues in their acquisition of Mandarin Chinese. For the curious, a copy of the thesis can be read here.

GSGET and Bluestone Senior High School

Before college, I attended the Governor's School for Global Economics and Technology in Keysville, VA, and graduated as Valedictorian of Bluestone Senior High School in 2004. While there, I served as color guard captain, and after graduating continued as choreographer and instructor for the Bluestone Marching Band for a number of years.

A current copy of my CV can be found here: