April 9, 2024
Language Sciences is thrilled to welcome Dr. Adriana Osa Gómez del Campo as our new Research, Engagement, and Operations Manager!
Adriana holds a Linguistics PhD at UBC's Linguistics Department, with a focus on discourse markers in Spanish. She brings a wealth of experiences in Language Sciences from her previous positions. Prior to joining Language Sciences, she has served as the Administrative Coordinator at UBC's Linguistics Department and a Lecturer at the National University of Singapore. These diverse roles have cultivated a sound understanding of Language Sciences' multifaceted nature. At the junction of a new turn, Adriana shares her thoughts with us.
1. Hi Adriana, we are so excited to have you! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I have always been interested in language in one form or another. I decided to switch majors from Biology to English studies because of my love for literature, and during my second year I fell in love with Linguistics since it allowed me to study the topic I loved through a humanistic, social, and scientific lens. After finishing my PhD in 2020 I realized that what made me most excited was talking about language with the general public and to discuss how important language-related research is for any area of life. That is what attracted me to this role, the possibility to help researchers and the communities that benefit from their work.
2. What interests you most in Language Sciences, and how did your work intersect with it?
I’m afraid that my answer here is as general as it gets: everything interests me about language and language sciences! I guess that what interests me the most is its collaborative nature – language is so fundamental to everyone’s experience that it is crucial for many fields. My work and interests focused quite a bit on conversations and how we signal what we know and how we know it, which made me dive into research conducted by linguists, philosophers, psychologists, science communicators, and many others. Many of the most important “aha” moments came from reading something from outside of my field, and hopefully we can create those “aha” moments with the Language Sciences initiatives!
3. How do you feel about being the new LangSci Manager? What perspectives are you hoping to bring to the Institute?
Previous coordinators have worked extremely hard to achieve important milestones for the Language Sciences Institute, and I can only hope to contribute to their work! What I hope I can bring to the Institute is an understanding of different perspectives: I’ve been lucky enough to experience language sciences from different approaches and different roles, and I understand how different the challenges and concerns are.
Please join us to extend a warm welcome to Adriana, and don't hesitate to reach out for any ideas or projects that require support! Her email is: We look forward to working with Adriana on many projects to come!adriana.osa-gomez@ubc.ca