News

Congratulations to our award-winning members!

Language Sciences would like to congratulate our many members who won awards, and received grants and funding, in 2020! Psychology Associate Professor Darko Odic was named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science and received a Jacobs Research Foundation Fellowship for 2021 –…

Baby’s brain and learning over time

Looking at brain images to read minds: using fMRI data to predict cognitive processes

Can you look at images of the brain and tell what someone is thinking? Well, not quite. But Language Sciences member and Psychiatry professor Todd Woodward works with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to determine networks in the brain and predict the cognitive processes involved…

New study explores BC mental health support across cultures

Pithy Papers: Young sign languages, second language frameworks, and micro-dialects

Introducing Pithy Papers, a new Language Sciences series where we highlight important and interesting research in the last three months by members from our three research themes, in 150 words or fewer. Find out why you should discover how signers of young sign languages converge on shared words…

Co-director Bryan Gick named AAAS Fellow in 2020

Investigating how facemasks affect communication for those with hearing loss

How do facemasks and other COVID-19 preventative measures affect communication for individuals with hearing loss? Language Sciences member Dr. Brenda Poon aims to find out. As the Wavefront Centre for Communication Accessibility research division lead, and Assistant Professor with the UBC Human…

Congratulations and thank you to graduate student Steering Committee member, Monica!

Many congratulations to Monica Shank Lauwo and Lauwo George on the birth of their son Makusaro, the newest (and youngest) Language Sciences member! With this new responsibility, Monica will step down from her role as a member of the Language Sciences Steering Committee, representing graduate…

Indigenizing the courtroom in Mexico with Indigenous language interpreters to defeat ‘language superiority’

Dr. Mónica Morales-Good conducting fieldwork in San Miguel Suchixtepec, Oaxaca Imagine defending yourself in a courtroom using an unfamiliar language. This is often the case for Indigenous speakers in Mexico and Latin America, but Language Sciences member Dr. Mónica Morales-Good’s research…

App that allows audio skim ‘reading’ for commuting and tired eyes is first step towards visual impairment mode

Trying to read an article but been in front of the screen too long already? Your problems may be over thanks to the Skimmer app. Designed for people with situational impairments, such as those commuting or resting tired eyes, the prototype allows users to skim ‘read’ complex documents,…