Welcome to the Cluster on Language Research at UC Davis!

The Cluster on Language Research (CLR) is an interdisciplinary student-run organization supporting any research and collaboration in the domain of “language.” The research interests of our students span a broad range of language-related topics, including but not limited to: language structure and variation, psycholinguistics, pedagogy, bilingualism, child language acquisition, second language development, sociolinguistics, and typology, just to name a few. 

Being fully managed by graduate students for graduate students provides us a unique perspective when it comes to how we approach research and training, which is often not important to clusters fully operated by well-established and tenured faculty. 

Each quarter, we host 2-3 talks or workshops where guest speakers from both UC Davis and beyond either present their research or host professional development workshops. Some examples of past talks/workshops can be found here. The current co-chairs will be reaching out to individuals on a quarterly basis, but if you are interested in presenting at one of these talks or running a practical workshop for our students, please feel free to contact either of us, or use the email below to reach out. We would love to hear from you! 

On top of our quarterly talks, our students also organize a large annual symposium every May! This annual symposium allows students from all over the country (and sometimes all over the world) to present their work and get feedback from fellow students. The one exception to our symposium's "students only" mantra comes in the form of our keynote speaker, which is being presented this year by Dr. Ryan Keith Shosted from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. The current theme for May 2026 is "Language at a Crossroads: History, Innovation, and Change." 

Another unique advantage of our CLR is its inclusion of students from many different UC Davis departments, including but not limited to: Linguistics, Education, Psychology, Computer Science, Native American Studies, Mathematics, Spanish and Portuguese, French, German, East Asian Languages, and NPB (Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior). Because "Language" is so pervasive in our lives, our work would not be what it is without this paramount interdisciplinary lens. Coming from so many different research specialties is only a benefit. 

If you are interested in joining the Cluster and in hearing updates about our talks and symposium, please see the screenshot below to subscribe to our e-mail list! If you have any questions, you can e-mail us at: ucd.langsymposium@gmail.com.

We are looking forward to a fantastic year of talks and workshops, and of course, to our annual symposium in May!