We are very happy to announce that Catherine Fortin will be joining the Carleton Linguistics Program as a full time member of the faculty, beginning this coming fall term. Professor Fortin earned her undergraduate degree from Tufts University, where she majored in French Language and Literature, with a minor in Economics. She earned a master’s degree in Linguistics, with a Certificate in American Indian Languages, from the University of Pittsburgh. Her Ph.D. is from the University of Michigan, where she worked primarily in the areas of syntax and semantics. Her dissertation is titled Indonesian Sluicing and Verb Phrase Ellipsis: Description and Explanation in a Minimalist Framework.
In addition to her dissertation work on Indonesian, Professor Fortin has also worked on Moroccan Arabic and Minangkabau, a language which is spoken by members of a large matrilineal society in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Last year at the University of Michigan, she was awarded the prestigious Rackham Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award.
She will teach two courses in the fall of 2007: Ling 275 Language Acquisition (5a, Ling 110 prerequisite) and the newly opened Ling 115 Introduction to the Theory of Syntax (3a, no prerequisites).