We invite you to participate in a Zoom event to meet with the linguistics faculty and graduate students in the Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese at Penn State, to learn about our graduate training program, the research questions we address in our groups, and opportunities for students. 

It’s true that a doctoral degree can lead to a rewarding research and teaching career in academia: you can become like the professors you admire the most. But in the country with the world’s second- largest number of Spanish speakers (the United States), that’s only the beginning. Graduates with a Ph.D. in Spanish linguistics are increasingly sought in forensics and law enforcement, diplomatic and intelligence agencies, advertising and marketing, information technology, publishing, and language-related software development.

Our doctoral program in Spanish linguistics, including the optional dual-title in Language Science and the new Linguistic Diversity and Human Technology Interaction training program, is grounded in empirical laboratory and field-based research, with the goal of producing highly versatile professionals. In addition to acquiring a strong foundation in linguistics, our doctoral students have the opportunity to become familiar with advanced imaging techniques, data mining, machine learning, statistical model-building, language across the lifespan (including language pathologies), and multi-lingual/multi-cultural ecological environments. Recent placements of our Ph.D. graduates in government, business, and industry (and of course, academia) highlight the marketability of our doctors.