Experiment participants in Professor Saffran's Infant Learning Lab

Participating in a language acquisition experiment in Professor Saffran's Infant Learning Lab

Research in Language Sciences

Faculty in Language Sciences are engaged in many types of research into language, including linguistic fieldwork and minority language documentation, formal modeling of linguistic theories, high-tech linguistic experiments, and community outreach projects. These faculty projects provide rich opportunities for undergraduate and graduate student research participation. Some areas of concentrated strength are highlighted below, and see our individual faculty pages for full details of ongoing research at UW-Madison.

Working at a Research Lab

One of the biggest advantages of attending a large R1 research university like UW-Madison is the opportunity for undergraduates to continue their learning outside of the classroom via work in a research lab! We encourage our undergraduate Linguistics majors to get involved with faculty research projects. All of the labs listed above hire student help – either as paid positions, for course credit, or on a volunteer basis. See each individual lab page for details on how to apply; typically, there is an application process and students are hired for a semester or year at a time. Faculty who do not have a specified “lab” also frequently hire students on an hourly basis to assist with individual projects. Reach out to your professors directly to ask about open research opportunities.


Language Sciences faculty publish widely in academic and popular formats. You can peruse a list of selected books by our faculty here:

Faculty Publications

Also see individual faculty pages for information on scholarly articles and research grants.