Sylvia Sierra 🪾🏔️

I don't know if this is helpful for any early career faculty, but here is a thing I learned: the things you did NOT do or said no to will typically not appear in your annual review.

Don’t mind me just cold calling language & culture reporters. I’m trying to get back in the media/news circuit after a bit of a lapse—if anyone can help with that and make any introductions do get in touch!

Teens in households making under $75K are more likely to use chatbots for help with all or most schoolwork % of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 who say they do all or most of their schoolwork with the help of AI chatbots U.S. teens — 10 Household income <$30,000 — 20 $30K–$74,999 — 15 $75,000+ — 7 Note: Those who did not answer or gave other responses are not shown. Source: Survey conducted Sept. 25–Oct. 9, 2025. “How Teens Use and View AI” PEW RESEARCH CENTER

According to PEW, teens in households making under $75K are more likely to use chatbots for help with all or most schoolwork. I read a comment on another platform that said this is amazing news because we are "finally going to close the achievement gap." That is not how I would interpret this data.

Signed language linguists, what sign do you use for argument when you’re talking about argument structure? There isn’t a specific sign in Norwegian SL, so would love your thoughts 🙏

Spread the word! Our division is open to anyone who works on discourse analysis, conversation analysis, ethnography of communication, & related approaches! This is the conference I’ve been going to almost every yr for the past 9 yrs. I’m currently the vice chair & program planner of this division!

Oh the behaviors you’ll observe at an airport

Ready to attend WSCA 2026! Love a February conference in San Diego 😎

big shout out to @natshri.bsky.social for all the work she has already(!) done as moderator in helping me organize this panel (and being there since the early versions of this panel which was previously rejected 2x from larger conferences that shall not be named) also to Leah Wingard our respondent!

Heading to San Diego for the Western States Communication Association, where I will be chairing the panel "Resisting stereotypes through language use". This will be in the Language, Self, and Social Construction division, and will feature a wonderful group of international scholars!

ok, time to nominate myself for some awards

One of my favorite books (maybe even my number one) of all time

Ya know, one of the best things about linguists in academia is that they will be sure to tell you how to pronounce their names on their websites or linkedin

Even though the weather is still ghastly in central New York, I’m starting to hear more variety in bird song so that’s good

“I’ve dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they’ve gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.”

Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

Big words coming from a guy whose dissertation was “if you go to a restaurant a lot, you’ll eventually know what happens when you go to a restaurant.”

Meeting new scholars and supporting them as they submit to the Journal of Black Language and Culture @jblackstream.bsky.social is the highlight of my life right now! If you want a meeting, reach out! I'm happy to meet with you and learn about your work! #MondayMotivation

Postdoctoral Fellow - Native American and Indigenous Studies Job Posting Title: Postdoctoral Fellow - Native American and Indigenous Studies ---- Hiring Department: College of Liberal Arts ---- Position Open To: All Applicants ---- Weekly Scheduled Hours: 40 --...

If anyone is interested in spending some time at UT Austin next year as a postdoctoral fellow, follow the link below:
Postdoctoral Fellow - Native American and Indigenous Studies
utaustin.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UTstaff/job/...

Ancient art could hold clues to the origins of written language Thousands of markings on objects made around 40,000 years ago may have been more than just doodles, a new analysis suggests

New research suggests that 40,000-year-old Stone Age markings are as statistically complex as the earliest known #writing (protocuneiform). Human writing may have thus begun to develop back in the Ice Age -- and not through accounting, but through #art.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/ston...

I can’t decide if for my second book I should try to get a contract based on the first finished chapter (which is the last and maybe weirdest chapter of the book) and a proposal, or wait until the whole book is done. Thoughts from anyone who has done this before?

just finished writing the conclusion for my chapter Singing Stereotypes in Conversation 💪

love waking up due the most pathetic disorder known to human kind: exploding head syndrome. for me this manifests as hearing a super crystal clear sound of someone knocking on a door, but it’s all fake but then you’re just awake 🙄

it is extremely weird

I actually didn’t think “Wuthering Heights” (2026) was boring, which I’ve heard a few people say but I just thought it was bad on multiple levels

Here are some of the works I looked at in case anyone is interested (and to show I'm not making up these findings lol)

I started reading some of this literature. It's weird & interesting. some of the major findings seem to be that there is more sex in popular music over time, a lot of objectification, more often of women by men than of men, hypermasculinity..more sex in rap than pop. lyrics getting simpler over time

There’s Some Whores in this House: An Examination of Female Sexuality in R&B/Hip Hop and Pop Music, 1991–2021 - Sexuality & Culture Sexually explicit lyrics are more often expressed by male artists; however, sexually explicit lyrics created by female artists attract greater media interest. During the past thirty years, female-crea...

love the title of this 2023 article by Griffin et al., and it's also a great review and very well done: "'There’s Some Whores in this House': An Examination of Female Sexuality in R&B/Hip Hop and Pop Music, 1991–2021"
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I love when it's raining and I hear the horn of a train in the distance

I'm realizing there is a lot of literature on gender/sexuality and race in popular music, rap music, etc. that I should probably be reading/citing in my work on singing in conversation & recirculating song stereotypes. Anyone have suggestions for great studies or where to start with this?

Our very own Program Director, Professor Hansun Zhang Waring gave a forward-looking keynote address at the International Conference on Sociolinguistics of Digital Media last week! #altesolfaculty #appliedlinguistics @TeachersCollege

The Campaign to Make Professors Teach More Lawmakers say faculty members don’t work enough. Is this about productivity or punishment?

This article made me very mad today. Especially since, for reasons I don’t really understand, my private university is taking their lead from these republican legislators forcing changes at red state universities
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...