With the evermore difficult funding climate in higher education over the past several decades, it has become imperative for linguistics programs and departments to illustrate their contributions to the academe beyond serving their own students. Curricular service across the University can be in the form of courses aimed at educating students across the curriculum in general education-type courses, or through offering occupation-­‐ or major-specific courses and workshops that provide linguistic expertise to the curriculum in students' home departments.

As linguistics is inherently interdisciplinary, linguistics offerings tailored to the goals of other fields can make a vital contribution to their success, perhaps in ways these fields have not yet imagined. The interdisciplinary nature of linguistics can also provide a strong case for course offerings in General Education; yet, ironically, this is a key reason linguistics is often overlooked when selecting a representative sampling of courses from discreet academic areas to form the GE offerings. Linguists themselves may also feel subtle professional pressure to focus on "pure" linguistics and steer away from creative applications of linguistics to other fields, out of a professional concern for career trajectory, even as linguistic realities are in fact integral to many other fields, recognized or not. The sheer breadth of linguistic reality in our world, combined with the current tight job market in linguistics programs and departments, provides motivation to creatively pursue the natural "fit" of linguistics in other fields. Linguists are best positioned to demonstrate the value of linguistics across the curriculum, a significant contribution to the academe in and of itself.

The purpose of this organized session is to showcase innovative and novel ways in which linguists and linguistics programs across the U.S. are contributing to the education of undergraduate students outside the linguistics major. This may take the form of linguistically-grounded courses which are tailored to the aims of other majors and programs, as well as linguistics courses included in the GE offerings, It is hoped that these models can inspire and equip others for developing similar curriculum in their own university contexts.

For more information, please contact Michal Temkin Martinez, Boise State University, michaltmartinez@boisestate.edu.