In 2020, the LSA continued its ongoing programs and services on behalf of its mission: to advance the scientific study of language. Highlights of new and expanded activities are outlined below.

Professional Development and Education

• Launched a new CV Database created by the Committee on Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics to assist job seekers and search committees in their respective roles.
• Created a new online resource, HELP for Endangered Language Collections, spearheaded by the Committee of Endangered Languages and their Preservation (CELP)
• Convened a Task Force on Professional Conduct to address concerns raised by the linguistics community about the LSA’s role in promoting standards of conduct for linguists
• Drafted a statement on Open Scholarship for member comment, in conjunction with the Committee on Scholarly Communication in Linguistics.
• Co-organized a series of webinars on:
  • Peer Review
  • Being a Linguist on Social Media
  • New Solicitation for NSF DLI-DEL Senior Research and Conference Grant Proposals
  • This IS Linguistics: Scope, Positionality, and Graduate Apprenticeship when Diversifying the Linguistics Curriculum 
  • Meet the Authors - From the world to word order: deriving biases in noun phrase order from statistical properties of the world
  • Creating More Just and Inclusive Learning Experiences
  • Centering Linguistic Diversity and Justice in Course Design
  • Inside the LSA's Subtitle Podcast
  • Mastering the Art of the Linguistics Podcast
  • Meet the Authors - Revisiting phonetic integration in bilingual borrowing
• Developed new resources on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, with grant support from the National Science Foundation.
• Compiled a list of resources for linguists coping with the impact of COVID-19 on fulfilling their professional obligations.
• Convened the first-ever virtual Community Dialogue event with the LSA officers to discuss LSA member concerns and priorities.(View recording)
• Enhanced the LSA’s ongoing Mentoring Initiative, including “Pop-up” offerings at linguistics conferences, an online distance mentoring facility, special events at the Annual Meeting, webinars, and made our first  mentoring award.

​Scholarships, Professorships, Honors & Awards

• Granted diversity travel awards to six students attending the 2020 Annual Meeting, under the auspices of the LSA’s Committee on Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics.
• Made the first Elizabeth Dayton Award to support travel and related expenses for a graduate student in sociolinguistics to attend the LSA Annual Meeting.
• Presented the first C. L. Baker Award to an outstanding syntactician in mid-career, Jon Sprouse.
• Launched the LSA Mentoring Award and selected Monica Macaulay as the first recipient.
• Successfully concluded  major fundraising drives to establish a new CoLang student fellowship in honor of the late LSA President Emmon Bach, and a lectureship in honor of late LSA member Richard Oehrle.
• Endowed two new awards in honor of Morris Halle and Victoria Fromkin, for student and early career phonologists.

Publications

• Formed a new partnership with the organizing committee of Experiments in Linguistic Meaning (ELM) to publish their conference proceedings.
• Announced a new section of Language on documentation and revitalization of endangered languages.  
• Published a new set of essays for the “This Time in Linguistics History” series appearing on the LSA website.

Advocacy

• Continued our campaign in support of Native American Language Revitalization legislation, which was enacted into law. We have now turned our attention to a new legislative priority: establishing the first-ever Native American Language Resource Center.
• Issued a Statement on Racial Justice in support of widespread protests against systemic racism.
• Issued various Statements or Endorsements, independently and in collaboration with colleague organizations:
  • Letter of support for Tashi Wangchuck, a language advocate imprisoned in China;
  • Letter calling on the White House to include ASL interpreters on-screen during COVID briefings;
  • Statement in support of Mashpee Wapanoag Tribal Recognition, which was temporarily revoked by the Trump Administration;
  • Letters opposing changes proposed by the Trump Administration to international student visa rules and regulations;
  • ACLS Statement on the Humanities, to guard against potential cuts to essential departments and programs across higher education.
• Participated in the successful defense of the National Endowment for the Humanities from proposed elimination.

Public Outreach and Media Relations

• Produced 21 episodes of our new language and linguistics podcast, Subtitle, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
• Convened a Task Force on Media Resources to address concerns raised by the linguistics community about the LSA’s role in listing experts for contact by journalists on our website.
• Coordinated the LSA’s participation in UNESCO’s planning for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022‑2032, in partnership with SSILA.
• Expanded the LSA outreach to K-12 teachers via free Annual Meeting registration and the publication of an open access article in Language on the Advanced Placement Linguistics initiative.
• Increased our reach on social media via daily posts about linguistics news stories appearing in the popular news media: over 42K followers on Facebook and almost 28K followers on Twitter.
• With support from NSF, co-sponsored a language science and linguistics booth at AAAS’ Family Science Days.

Continuing Traditions

• Organized the LSA’s 94th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, including the popular Five-minute Linguist event, now in its fifth year, reaching a standing-room-only audience. Planning for first-ever virtual meeting in 2021.
• Increased readership of our flagship journal, Language, via online sections on: Teaching Linguistics, Public Policy, Research Reports, Language Documentation and Revitalization and Perspectives.
• Continued LSA co-sponsorship of CoLang and supported planning associated with CoLang 2020 at University of Montana, which was postponed until 2022 as a result of COVID-19.
• Published the fifth volume of the Proceedings of the LSA based on research presented at the 2020 Annual Meeting, and new volumes of the Proceedings of the AMP and SALT.
• Issued a series of news releases about the latest research published in its journals and presented at its Annual Meeting, garnering significant coverage in prominent international media outlets.
• Provided financial assistance and in-kind support for linguists seeking to attend the LSA Annual Meeting and access LSA publications, including a new campaign to support LSA members impacted by COVID-19.
• Published a new volumes of Semantics & Pragmatics, and Phonological Data & Analysis, the platinum open-access journals of the LSA.
• Issued the seventh edition of the LSA’s Annual Report on the State of Linguistics in Higher Education [pdf], with new longitudinal LSA data.
• Represented linguists at national and international meetings of colleague organizations and through participation in coalitions and consortia working to advance science, the humanities, and higher education.
• Defended linguistics departments and programs against threats of cuts or elimination by contacting administrators and officials and by working behind the scenes to provide data in support of the value of linguistics.
• Conducted successful membership recruitment and retention campaigns using a range of strategies, including social media coupons, bulk student memberships for departments/programs, and specialized outreach by staff and leadership to participants in various LSA programs and services. 
• Sponsored a Joint Membership Program with the American Dialect Society (ADS), offering reduced rates to LSA members wishing to join ADS.