PhD in Linguistics - Language, Interaction and Social Organization (Interdisciplinary) in Santa Barbara United States | University of California, Santa Barbara

The graduate emphasis in Language, Interaction, and Social Organization (LISO) offers an excellent opportunity for students pursuing studies in discourse, interactional linguistics, and sociocultural linguistics (encompassing sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology) to enhance their Ph.D. program. LISO unites faculty and graduate students from linguistics, sociology, and education who collectively acknowledge language as an essential tool for human behavior and societal structure. Researchers within LISO investigate language usage and other forms of communication within their natural interactive settings. Using primarily video and audio recordings of social exchanges, LISO linguists analyze topics such as the relationship between grammatical patterns and communication requirements, the interplay between gestures and speech, and how social constructs like identity and authority manifest in interactions. LISO scholars examine casual conversations across diverse languages and cultures, along with structured environments like preschools, educational settings, and media platforms. The group employs multiple theoretical and methodological frameworks for analyzing discourse, including conversation analysis, ethnographic studies, corpus linguistics, and other approaches. Each year, the LISO proseminar and Research Focus Group organize various activities, such as data analysis sessions, guest lectures, presentations by faculty and students, and a spring conference coordinated alternately by UCSB and UCLA's CLIC program.