Oxford University will launch its new faculty for Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics on August 1 2008. The faculty will centralise Oxford’s research and teaching in the subject, which has traditionally taken place in separate faculties across the university.
The move, announced June 6 2008, is said to reflect current trends for interdisciplinary research in the area. Faculty members will work across the areas of linguistics and neuroscience, as well as working closely with the existing Experimental Psychology Department.
The creation of the new faculty should allow Oxford to extend its research into the areas of cognitive science, experimental psychology and computing in relation to the study of language. There are also plans to introduce new courses for undergraduates wishing to study this field.
Despite having had no centralised faculty until now, Oxford’s Linguistics department was named joint best in the country by the Times Good University Guide 2007. The new plans were welcomed by existing Linguistics staff and by members of the Humanities Division.
