We are delighted to announce that Jeffrey Lamontagne has joined the Department of French and Italian as an Assistant Professor in the field of French sociolinguistics. Arriving at IUB amidst the tumult of COVID-19 pandemic adjustments in August 2020, Lamontagne is now teaching an undergraduate course on French phonetics and pronunciation as well as our popular Introduction to French Linguistics class. He has gradually moved to Bloomington this Fall from Montreal, where he recently finished his PhD in Linguistics under the direction of Heather Goad and Francisco Torreira. He successfully defended his thesis on “Interaction in Phonological Variation: Grammatical Insights from a Corpus-Based Approach” in September.
Lamontagne’s work focuses on elucidating the structure that underlies phonological variation and change in French. To accomplish this, he uses a combination of corpus studies and laboratory studies examining perception and production. Through this work, he aims to better understand both the influences of different components of the linguistic system on variation and the way that variation offers insight into French phonology.
Under the current circumstances, Lamontagne hasn’t yet had the opportunity to explore Bloomington as much as he would like. He has, however, appreciated the wonderfully warm welcome to the department through socially distant meetings and through the incredible support by staff, faculty and graduate students who provided recommendations for restaurants to try and for academic resources at IU. He also notes having been particularly impressed by the students, who have worked so hard to adapt to the many challenges this semester has imposed.
We welcome Professor Lamontagne to the FRIT team!
The College of Arts