Washington Square Park, near the NYU Linguistics department

Taryn Hurley-Hall, Linguistics, University of Manchester (2024 Cohort)

During the Spring semester of this year, I was given the opportunity to visit New York University for both an overseas institutional visit and a placement. It was an amazing experience, and I believe it will positively impact my PhD and my future career. The Linguistics department at NYU was very welcoming, and it quickly felt as though I was a member of their academic community. I’m particularly grateful to my officemates and academic host for their warm welcome!

By combining an OIV and my placement, I was able to spend time working on a wide range of topics. As part of the OIV, I audited three interesting courses; I’ve already begun to use some of the data analysis methodologies I learnt about in my own research! I also had the opportunity to present some findings from my PhD to the Sociolinguistics Lab, a great group of researchers in my field, and receive helpful feedback. For my placement, I worked on an NSF-funded project and strengthened research and data analysis skills that will be applicable to my PhD and all future projects.

It was great to meet and work with a number of academics that I may not otherwise have had the opportunity to meet in person. I learnt more about the US higher education system, which I hope will be useful for my academic career. I was also able to visit Philadelphia and attend some talks at the Penn Linguistics Conference. Across both cities, I met fellow PhD students and established academics to whom I’m thankful for taking the time to share ideas and discuss our research.

In addition to the academic benefits, it was so wonderful to spend a semester in New York City. It was a pretty intense winter (there was a blizzard in February!) but I was able to visit iconic museums, see great shows on Broadway, and collect many funny stories from the subway to take back home. There were also many coffee runs and lunches with other students in the department, which was a necessary balance with the hard work.

At the end of the visit, my academic host was kind enough to host a goodbye lunch for me. I got to spend time with friends and professors, and reflect on a fulfilling semester. I’m so grateful to the NWSSDTP for facilitating this visit! The OIV is a fantastic opportunity that we’re given during our programmes, and I would highly recommend it to anyone considering. I’ll remember this experience for a very long time!

  Central Park