To let the organizers know you are coming, please fill out our registration form by May 1. To discuss your plans with other (possible) attendees, please add a comment below!

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61 thoughts on “Are you coming?

  1. I’m the current Department Chair, and have now been at UMass for nearly a quarter of a century. I’m especially excited for this opportunity to reconnect with former students, many of whom I haven’t seen in a very long time.

    By the way, if you want your picture (or something else) beside your WordPress comments (this is a WordPress blog), you need a Gravatar.

    1. Tom Roeper
      I’ll be there–or rather I’m still here. Looking forward to seeing many people who
      did a bit of acquisition work as well as those who did a lot. I made a video of South College and every room—now it is just empty space in the entrace hall. Still looking for the video. Out of one window Lisa Selkirk put a big banner welcoming a
      Sandinista leader (Ernesto Cardinal I think)–quite a sight.

  2. I was a Ph.D student, huddled in a corner of South College (and holding office hours in the condemned tower) from 2001-2006. Coming back to the happiest of valleys is always a trip and a timewarp, so I am definitely in. If you’re on the fence about attending, reach out to me so I can convince you?

  3. I’m an associate professor – I’ve been at UMass for a little more than 10 years now! I’ll be there for sure 🙂

  4. I was a visiting faculty at UMass in 2006-2007, my first position after grad school. I disappeared for a few years and then returned as an associate professor in 2015. I’m really excited to reconnect with former students from both of these periods!

  5. I imagine you all know me — I’ve been here since 1972, and I’m still here — Emerita since 2004 but still around and active in the department. I’m really hoping that lots of our alumni (and former faculty and visiting faculty and visiting grad students) will come to this event! I would love to see everyone, and I also really hope that this will be an opportunity for lots of you who know each other only by name to actually get acquainted!

    1. Great! And as I’ve mentioned to you Jim, it was so interesting for me to see both you and Bob on the 1974 Institute program – I didn’t realize you had both been here since the start of our department.

    1. Small world: Having obtained my linguistics Ph.D. from U Mass Amherst in 1994, I became an attorney in 2001 and for several years served as General Counsel to the California Faculty Association, which represents you, Nancy, and the other faculty at the California State University. Since 2019, I have been an Administrative Law Judge at the California Public Employment Relations Board, a position that I enjoy greatly. My wife Karin and I are currently looking for a home in the Berkshires or the Happy Valley where we eventually want to retire (!). I am therefore frequently in the area and may drop in on the reunion if one of my visits coincides with it.

    1. Sorry to hear you won’t make it Kai! We have a couple faculty members who will be missing Sunday’s events due to this conflict, but luckily they can be there Saturday.

  6. My degree is from 1981, on categorial grammar, directed by Barbara. I had a wonderful experience at UMass, and I’m eager to return.

  7. I was at UMass (go South College!) from 1990-1995 (official grad date in 1997). I’ve been in industry for a long time now, but I’m coming back for this. Plus, I’m blissfully married to another UMass linguist, who still happens to be an academic.

  8. I was at UMass from 1973 to 1977 and have been retired now for almost 5 years. (Time flies!) I hope to be back this summer but it depends on some family commitments that were made some time ago. Nice to see that Mike Flynn may be there. Any others from the mid-70s?

  9. I am a recent PhD grad (2020) now at UBC. I am hoping to make the trip with a newborn baby (due April) in tow, but we’ll still working out the details!

  10. I date from the South College days of the 1990s. I am hoping to come. I will probably have to miss the opening reception, though, due to other commitments.

  11. I was at UMass from 1992 to 1999/2000. I’m in Communication Science and Disorders at the University of Pittsburgh and VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. I’m also blissfully married to another UMass linguistics alum (see above). We’re both looking forward to being there.

  12. Hi all, glad to see some names that i recognize. since everybody is saying that, I was there 1991-1997. I will try to get there… wondering if anybody is looking for AirBnB or similar arrangements, that may be a bit cheaper than the hotels and allow for breakfast and a bit more space. let me know (i haven’t begun to look at that yet).
    anybody else from my class thinking about making the trip?

  13. Hi everybody. I moved away from Amherst a few years after I retired and now live on Cape Cod and in Somerville. Looking forward to re-appearing and seeing all you all!

  14. I joined the faculty here in the early 90s, but felt like I joined the general UMass community in the 80s, while I was in a graduate program at an institution of higher learning a couple of hours drive from Amherst. I got to know some of the graduate students at UMass then, and loved hanging out in Amherst. I can’t wait to see you all.

  15. Hi everyone!
    I was at UMass between 1999 and 2004 (getting my PhD in 2004). I’m hoping to come to the event but my summer schedule got changed, so we’ll see how it goes. At any event, it’s great to see some familiar names here and I very much hope that I can come.

  16. I was an undergrad at UMass from 1999-2003, then worked as a research assistant for Lisa Selkirk and John Kingston in 2004-05 before going on to grad school. I’m now an associate professor at West Virginia University. I am really sad that I’m going to miss this; it’s right at the same time as an already-booked family vacation. I would have loved to see everybody. Have fun!

  17. I was a visiting postdoc at UMass in 2006-2007 and am now an associate professor at Ghent University, Belgium. I’m still grateful for your hospitality back then (and support by Joe Pater, John Kingston and John McCarthy). It’s a little too far to come over, but I wish you all a great celebration!

  18. Hello, everybody. I was at UMass from 1991 to 1997 and I have been at Wayne State University in Michigan since 1997. I would have loved to see everybody, but I will be in Spain in July. Enjoy the celebration!

  19. I joined the UMass Psychology Department in 1968, during the prehistory of UMass Linguistics. I hung out with linguists from the beginning, and have enjoyed collaborating with them (particularly Lyn Frazier and Brian Dillon and their students) ever since. I’m looking forward to this event.

  20. I can now confirm that I will definitely be there! Can’t wait to see Don Freeman (who directed my dissertation and survived to tell the tale), Barbara, Mike Flynn and hopefully a gaggle of other friends from the very earliest years.

  21. I was a doctoral student in the UMass philosophy department from 1980 to 1987. There were close ties with the linguistics department: I took Montague semantics, got to know some linguistics faculty and grad students, and it was my privilege to have had Barbara as my dissertation director. I look forward to being there.

    1. Arnie, that’s great that you can come! Looking forward to seeing you! (And so many others — I haven’t been replying, but I’ve been looking at the list and smiling a huge smile!)

  22. I was there 1985-1990. Like Kai, I’ll be there in spirit. I have conflicting plans. I’m sorry to miss it.

    1. 2014 PhD (at UMass 2009-2015). In industry these days but excited to see folks and revisit old haunts before and after.

  23. Ellen and I expect to be there. Ellen retired from UMass on May 31 of this year, and I will be retiring on June 30. We are planning to move to Sonoma County California, where I have family as well as nearby friends at UC Santa Cruz and Stanford.

  24. Looks like I will be there with my new baby! I got my PhD in phonology in 2016, and now work at UCLA. I always love coming back to Western Mass, and I’m so excited to see everyone again, and meet some of you for the first time.
    I absolutely will be doing some trips out to the bookmill, maybe the bridge of flowers, and doing some hiking in the days before and after. Get in touch if you want to join!

  25. Hi, folks – I’ll be there for sure! Well, at my age I have to add “God willing.” My last job pre-retirement was at USC; Margaret and I came back to the Valley (of course!) 20-plus years ago, renovated an old (1790) house in Heath, a small town NW of Amherst, and are happy as the proverbial clams. I’m so happy that so many of you have done so well in your careers, and that the department has continued to grow in excellence and reputation. Looking forward to seeing you in a month or so!

    Best – Don Freeman

    1. Hi Don, I’m sorry not to be there — I now live in Essex, after retiring 9 years ago from York linguistics. I noticed Margaret’s book on the LSA publications list, just above my own. That is my last effort in linguistics, now concentrating on my first love, painting. Just as well, since when I moved back to England I couldn’t anticipate the lack of funding for research, or worst still, Brexit. Spend a lot of time in Portugal in the winter. Helen

      1. Hi, Helen. Great to hear from you. I’m sorry to learn that you can’t be here for our 50th, but the distances are substantial, I know. Maybe we’re alike in returning to the arts in retirement; I managed to resurrect my tenor voice and am singing in various community groups and occasionally soloing in my church. I had a chance to sing the Verdi Requiem a couple of years ago, which had long been on my bucket list. Sounds like you’ve had the same kind of fulfillment from painting as I’ve had from music!

        All best – Don

  26. I’m arriving on Friday and staying at the Campus Center Hotel through Sunday morning. Hi Mike Flynn! We’re at the same hotel for a couple of nights.

  27. I was at UMass Linguistics 1990-1998, PhD in psycholinguistics. I now work in industry running experiments on computer systems rather than people.

    Though Kai will be in Greece, I will be at the event, staying over Saturday night. Looking forward to seeing folks!

  28. Repost since I apparently replied before:

    2014 PhD (at UMass 2009-2015). In industry these days but excited to see folks and revisit old haunts before and after.

  29. Not gonna make it in person but would love to dial-in if there’s remote VTC for any of it (maybe the SC retrospective?)

        1. Mikey! …. if you have any stories to add to my South College tribute — which is really turning into a roast — please email them to me before Saturday!

  30. 2009 PhD. Now at University of Toronto. Sadly missing this event (in York UK on the tail end of a sabbatical stint). I hope lots of photos are taken. I’ll mentally paste myself into them.

  31. 2002 PhD, now at UNC Chapel Hill with a surprisingly large number of other UMass alums, and we’re proud to have sent a bunch of our students back up to UMass for PhDs. Sorry not to be able to make it to the festivities, but I’ll try to look in online.

  32. Hello all, wishing you all a wonderful celebration. Couldn’t make it after all… at the airport now in my way to q conference in brasil … couldn’t make the flights play with each other!! :/
    Have a wonderful time!!

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