About UCSC Linguistics

The Department of Linguistics at UC Santa Cruz aims to advance the understanding of human linguistic ability through the empirical examination of particular languages. The department is renowned for its strengths in phonology, psycholinguistics, semantics, and syntax, as well as for connecting these disciplines to one another and to morphology, phonetics, and pragmatics. Faculty and students deploy a range of computational, experimental, and fieldwork methodologies in their research. The department offers two undergraduate majors, in linguistics and language studies, as well as two graduate degrees (MA and PhD), preparing students for careers in research, teaching, and industry.

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Linguistics Events

COLLOQUIA for Winter 2025: 

  • January 31: Karlos Arregi (University of Chicago)
  • March 7: Jessica Rett (UCLA)

Departmental Kudos:

For more events, check out the department blog What's Happening at Santa Cruz (WHASC) and the department events calendar.

Information for Undergraduates

Both in-person and remote advising are available.

Remote advising:

Remote advising is available by video (through Zoom) during regular drop-in office hours:

or by appointment (email ling@ucsc.edu to set up an appointment).

Please see the current drop-in advising schedule for in-person advising hours. The Undergraduate Advisor’s office is in the Stevenson Academic Building, Room 241. Please wear a mask for in-person meetings. If you prefer to meet without a mask, please choose a Zoom meeting.

See Student Health Center site for COVID protocol: https://healthcenter.ucsc.edu/services/covid-19/covid19-students.html

Email a peer advisor! lingpeer@ucsc.edu

Other information:

Support Linguistics

Make a gift

Your gift to Linguistics can help to support our outstanding students, maintain the excellence of our programs, and make the difference towards achieving concrete goals in a number of areas:

Give to the department today!