A Brief History
The Linguistics Department at the University of Kansas was established in 1967, though for many years the program functioned like a department all its own through the combined efforts of a handful of professors from different language-related disciplines. The addition of a Department letterhead in many ways was a stamp of approval that only served as a technicality. Linguistics had already established its presence at KU.
Offering first an M.A. degree and then a Ph.D. in 1969, the Linguistics Department at the University of Kansas has been an integral player in linguistics research and collaboration throughout the Midwest. The KU Linguistics department is the only Linguistics department in a five-state region, including Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas. Although some of the universities in the region have undergraduate concentrations in linguistics, ours is the only department within a 500-mile radius, and provides the only graduate program in the region as well.
In the years since its conception, the Linguistics Department at the University of Kansas has seen hundreds of graduates go on to contribute to the field, and we welcome you back to celebrate the 50th anniversary. Below is a brief interview with Dr. Frances Ingemann, who played a vital role in the establishing the department and setting the standard of excellence that has seen the Linguistics Department at KU prosper.
An Interview with Dr. Ingemann
By: Kayla Clark, M.A. 2018
You go into graduate school with expectations. You expect to learn so much that your brain has to buffer like a YouTube video just to process it all. You expect to make relationships with your fellow students and professors that will last a lifetime. You expect to walk out with a degree that you’re proud of and that you worked hard to earn.
And if you’re me, fresh into your first year of your MA at KU, the last thing you expect is to interview the woman who took a linguistics program and established a Department with a single letterhead.
It’s 10 o’clock on a Friday morning in March when the weather is deceptively pleasant. The sun is out and bright, but then there’s a good breeze and suddenly you’re fighting a shiver. I’m wishing for a jacket as I hug a notebook close to my chest in an attempt to look professional. In my mind, when you’re interviewing Dr. Ingemann, looking like you’ve got your act together is essential.
I don’t know what to expect. I’ve prepared for the interview as best I can. I’ve written out my questions and made notes on a few facts for conversation starters, but there’s no telling just where the conversation will go, and so by the time I’m knocking on Dr. Ingemann’s door, I’m beginning to suspect that a lack of expectations is the least of my problems.
But then the door opens, and it’s game on.
And, of course, I had no reason to worry at all.
Dr. Ingemann smiles and leads me inside, asking if I’m Kayla and here for the interview. “Yes, ma’am,” I say. “Where do you want me?”
We sit on the loveseat in her living room and go through a few hellos and how-are-yous, and I’m starting to relax. It’s okay. My first foray into journalism is so far, so good. I start recording, and then it’s nearly an hour of conversation about the founding of the department, starting up MALC, and old stories about linguistic-themed costume parties.
We spend a good portion of our time talking about the founding of the department and how it was a culmination of a variety of factors that created the department we all know today. Professors with linguistics training all chipped in to teach courses, including David Dinneen who would later become the Head of the Department, and after a few years, the program had blossomed into something more, which led to a memorable moment that’s the linguistic equivalent of a door slam heard around the world: “The Dean and I had talked about . . . what the difference was between a department and a program,” Dr. Ingemann explains, “. . . and in his mind, there was no difference. . . So I made up the letterhead!”
The conversation drifts to colloquies and the Mid America Linguistic Conference (MALC). As it turns out, colloquies were an idea taken from Dr. Ingemann’s time at Indiana, but the receptions afterward at her house were a pleasant addition: “At the time, I lived not too far from campus, and so following the colloquies . . . they would come over to my house for an informal get together,” she said.
MALC had a sneakier start. As Dr. Ingemann explains, “The idea . . . was at some point the university gave money to invite an outside lecturer once a year. And so we thought that instead of just having the people at KU hear this outside lecturer let’s . . . invite other people—linguists—who are in driving distance . . . But um, then, as we were talking about advertising this, we thought, well, if people are going to drive a distance to be here . . . Let’s make it worthwhile by having more than one presentation, and so we started soliciting papers to be given on that same date we were having our visiting lecturer, and that turned into the Mid America Linguistics Conference.”
We talk about the receptions after the presentations (again held at her house) and the institution of leftover parties to entice presenters to stay a day longer, but in the last fifteen or so minutes of our interview, we finally hit the inevitable: the 50th anniversary. And once again, we hit on my ongoing theme of expectation.
In talking about what’s contributed most to the department’s success, Dr. Ingemann and I seem to keep coming around to essentially the same thing: the people. Professors, students, administrators—everyone that has worked together to make the Linguistics Department at KU the best it can be and always striving to be better still. “There was a lot of spirit of cooperation,” Dr. Ingemann says, and as she thinks about the 50th anniversary and what it means for the future, there’s a resounding theme of cooperation and tenacity: “One of the things that I’ve been thinking about as this celebration has come around, that this program, despite never having a big infusion of money or anything like that, has survived for 50 years—in contrast to other programs that have floundered and disappeared . . . and so . . . the future looks extremely bright! It looks as if we’re getting better every year.”
Our conversation ends on a high note, both of us all smiles, and I make the walk back out to my car with my notebook at my side. It’s warmed up a bit, and the breeze is not as cool. I’m thinking of expectations again. I’m thinking about how a little program became a department recognized around the world. I’m thinking about the thousands of students and dozens of professors that have made KU Linguistics a part of their lives, a part of their history. Most of all, though, I’m thinking about how KU Linguistics has thoroughly defied expectations, and will no doubt continue to do in the years to come.