Rhodes Linguistics welcomes new postgrads

A fresh group of new postgraduate students arrived at the Department of English Language and Linguistics at the beginning of February.  An exciting week of activities welcomed new students to our scholarly community and gave them a taste of the kinds of research we do.

The students were greeted by all the staff at an information session on Sunday 1 February, where they heard about the wide variety of modules the department offers, ranging from Optimality Theory to Language and Knowledge. 

For the rest of the week, postgrads new to the department were busy in seminars for the Introduction to Linguistic Research at Rhodes module, which gave them an overview of the broad sweep of formal and applied linguistic thought. 

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons from 5pm to 6pm staff members presented their research interests to all the postgraduate students in an informal seminar setting, helping students to think about what directions they would like to choose for their own research projects.

The ‘cherry on the cake’ of the week was the Postgraduate Welcome Party on the evening of Thursday 5 February, in which we gathered in the beautiful setting of the VC’s Dining Room for a night of socializing.  The English Language and Linguistics community has just grown bigger, and the prospects for the year ahead are exciting!