In 2021, 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

• Held the LSA’s first-ever Linguistics Career Launch online event, organized by the Linguistics Beyond Academia Special Interest Group
• Issued new guides on:
  • Avoiding Misgendering in Professional Communications
  • Equity and Inclusion at Linguistics Conferences: REIL
  • Methods in Collaborative and Community-centered Language Documentation
• Co-organized a series of webinars on:
  • The LSA Statement Against Linguistic Misgendering: Review and Practical Applications
  • Reconstructing the Evolution of Proto-Indoeuropean Grammar
  • Publishing in the Language and Public Policy Section of Language
  • Webinar: Language Revitalization and Documentation, the Newest Section of the LSA’s Flagship Journal
  • “Meet the Authors”: Toward Racial Justice in Linguistics: Interdisciplinary Insights into Theorizing Race in the Discipline and Diversifying the Profession
• 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 second mentoring award.

​Scholarships, Professorships, Honors & Awards

• Granted diversity registration awards to 20 students participating in the 2021 Annual Meeting under the auspices of the LSA’s Committee on Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics.
• Launched two new awards in honor of Morris Halle and Victoria Fromkin for student and early career phonologists.
• Permanently endowed the newly named Preston Diversity Travel Awards with a generous donation from Dennis and Carol Guagliardo Preston.
• Launched the new Arnold Zwicky Award to recognize the contributions of LGBTQ+ scholars in Linguistics.

Advocacy

• Continued our campaign in support of Native American Language Revitalization legislation.
• Issued various Statements or Endorsements, independently and in collaboration with colleague organizations:
  • Indigenous Community Issues
    

    
    
    

  • Importance of Linguistic Expertise in Legal Contexts
  • Against Linguistic Misgendering
  • Scholarly Merit and Evaluation of Open Scholarship in Linguistics
  • Importance of Linguistic Expertise in Legal Contexts
  • Violence and Xenophobia Against Asian-Americans
  • Support of DOXA
  • CNSF letters to Congress requesting funding of NSF for FY2022 and FY2023
  • AHA Statement on Threats to Academic Conferences 
  • Scholars At Risk letter urging for aid to Afghanistan’s scholars, students, practitioners, civil society leaders, and activists
  • ACLS Letter to Iowa Lawmakers Opposing Legislation to End Tenure at Public Universities
  • ACLS Statement urging KS Board of Regents to uphold employment protections for faculty

Public Outreach and Media Relations

• Produced nine new episodes of our language and linguistics podcast, Subtitle, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and secured a second grant to continue the podcast in 2022.
• Appointed a new Social Media Committee and relaunched our program of external posts about language and linguistics in the news.
• 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 special sessions for high school students at the meeting.
• Increased our reach on social media via daily posts about linguistics news stories appearing in the popular news media: over 44K followers on Facebook and more than 30K followers on Twitter.

Continuing Traditions

• Organized the LSA’s first-ever virtual Annual Meeting, attended by over 1000 linguists worldwide, and made plans for our first hybrid format meeting in Washington, DC, in January 2022.
• Increased readership of our flagship journal, Language, including a new section focused on documentation and revitalization of endangered languages.
• Continued LSA co-sponsorship of CoLang and supported planning associated with CoLang 2022 at the University of Montana, which was postponed from 2020 due to COVID-19.
• Published the sixth volume of the Proceedings of the LSA based on research presented at the 2021 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 campaign to support LSA members impacted by COVID-19.
• Published new volumes of Semantics & Pragmatics, and Phonological Data & Analysis, the platinum open-access journals of the LSA.
• Issued the eighth 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 supporting 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.