Sarah Jones (Ph.D. Sociology, 2004) “LISO was a tremendous help in developing analytic skills and seeing data from different perspectivest. It was also a great place to share work and receive valuable feedback.”
Joseph Sung-Yul Park (Ph.D. Linguistics, 2004) “I learned very much form the interdisciplinary dialogue of the LISO group. The combined perspectives of functional linguistics, discourse analysis, conversation analysis, and linguistic anthropology helped me develop a critical and detail-oriented perspective on language, and encouraged me to pursue issues that are not constrained by one traditional discipline.”
Mardi Kidwell (Ph.D. Sociology, 2003) “I was a member of LISO from my first year as a graduate student and it gave me the chance to focus my scholarship early on. The group always provided a supportive arena for me to present my work and get feedback. LISO's strength, I think, is the commitment of the people who make up the group to rigorous and thoughtful scholarship. I've missed the discussions and great people!”
Deborah Perry Romero (Ph.D Education, 2003) “LISO was definitely one of my best experiences at UCSB! It constituted a unique interdisciplinary space that allowed for engagement and exchange of ideas and concepts, usually grounded in research-based data, amongst faculty, students and guest speakers, all of who shared a common interest in language and social interaction.
As a scholar of language working within the Education Department, LISO provided me with unique opportunities to discover and partake in intellectual discussions on a range of linguistic based topics from Sociology, Linguistics, Anthropology, Psychology and, of course, Education. Nowhere on campus (except perhaps at the UCEN!) did such a diverse group come together. The atmosphere was always collegial and supportive, and encouraged graduate students to share and present their developing research and opinions too.
LISO’s connections with CLIC, at UCLA, also provided exposure to a still broader network of graduate students and professionals studying language and interaction across diverse settings. The yearly, graduate student organized, conferences were without doubt academic (and social) events not to be missed.
I would strongly recommend anyone with an interest in understanding language, its organization and role in human interactions to consider LISO as emphasis for strengthening their graduate learning experience while at UCSB.”
Agnes Kang (Ph.D. Linguistics, 2000) “LISO is a unique group of active and energetic scholars who enjoy exchanging ideas and helping each other to further develop research on language, interaction, and social organization. The interdisciplinary nature of the group offers multiple insights and perspectives, and the 'tolerance' of researchers who are willing to stretch and learn from other disciplines is a rare quality not found in many places.”
Elise Kärkkäinen (Ph.D. Linguistics, 1998) “In the early 90’s when I was a graduate student at UCSB there was already some cooperation between Linguistics, Sociology and Education. My dissertation work benefited greatly from a chance to learn about conversation analysis by auditing courses, attending data sessions, and taking part in some joint seminars, and I think it is an excellent idea that students can now have this interdisciplinary Ph.D. emphasis as a more established part of their studies. In recent years I have had a research project that involves four researchers here in Finland (please see http://www.ekl.oulu.fi/stance/), two of whom (Pentti Haddington and Tiina Keisanen) have actually attended some LISO courses. This wonderful opportunity has been of great importance to our work here..”
Peggy Szymanski (Ph.D. Spanish & Portugese, 1996) LISO was valuable because I could explore interdisciplinary research interests within a formal academic program without having to do an individualized Ph.D. My LISO background helped me secure my present position, because it packages my qualifications (Spanish Linguistics, educational research and conversation analysis) in a comprehensible and desirable way. And the way of working that I learned from being a LISO member has been crucial to my success at PARC, as I am able to effectively collaborate with the diverse members of my group (anthropologists, cognitive psychologists, sociologists) as well as the computer scientists and other technologists at the center.
