The Language and Linguistics program hired its first tenure-track professor following changes to the Linguistics program were approved by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee in November. Sophia Malamud, who is currently finishing her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, accepted an assistant professorship March 29 and will teach Introduction to Linguistics and Introduction to Semantics in the fall.

The hiring is the latest move in an effort to shore up the study of linguistics at the University. The program has been understaffed with no tenure-track professors teaching classes last semester and has not had a permanent chair since longtime department head Ray Jackendoff left the University last year to take a position at Tufts University.

In addition to a new name, the UCC-approved program changes added a core course to the curriculum called Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis, which emphasizes interdisciplinary aspects of the field.

Prof. Joan Maling will return this fall to chair the program after a three-year stint as director of the linguistics program at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va. She said Malamud is a welcome addition to the program.

"I'm excited about having her as a colleague," she wrote in an e-mail to the Justice, noting that Malamud's work in the field complements much of her own.

"It will be nice to have someone younger to give some energy to the program," said Kara Hawthorne '06, an undergraduate department representative.

Malamud said she was impressed with the caliber of the professors and the students at Brandeis.

"The [Language and Linguistics] program seems to be acquiring new strength, with support from several departments, particularly Anthropology," she wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "I hope to help produce a similar level of linguistics graduates while sharing my enthusiasm for linguistics with non-majors as well."

Hawthorne said the new changes to the linguistics program would allow for more flexibility for students.

"It's really pretty much up to the students what they want their focus to be," she said.

Fellow Language and Linguistics UDR Shanna Hollich '07 agreed.

"Basically, majoring in linguistics before could have easily meant majoring in Professor Jackendoff," she said. "With this you get a lot more perspectives on linguistics from a lot more fields and a lot more people."

According to Maling, the faculty for the program next semester will be comprised of Maling, Malamud, Prof. Janet McIntosh (ANTH), Prof. Leonard Muellner (CLAS) and Prof. James Pustejovsky (COSI).

Six other faculty members from the departments of Philosophy, German Russian and Asian Languages and Literature, Computer Science and Anthropology will be affiliated with the program, Maling said.

Shanna Hollich '07, another UDR, said while Jackendoff is technically a full-time Tufts faculty member as of this semester, he has returned to Brandeis on a part-time basis to advise students who began their senior theses under his guidance. Hollich said Jackendoff, who has maintained a minimal presence on campus this year, will work only at Tufts starting next semester.