Welcome from the Chair

Welcome to the spring 2026 issue of Between the Lines! In this issue you will learn about four of our alumni and five new courses launched this year. Read on to learn about our annual conference and 20-year anniversary celebration of our doctoral program in Applied Linguistics and Technology. In addition, we have checked in with several faculty members to learn about their recent activities and perspectives. Spanning the stories, you may detect a throughline of renewal, innovation, and celebration particularly in the linguistics area of the department.

Our alumni stories connect former students’ experiences at Iowa State with their growth in understanding their potential and the possibilities for study and work in language-related professions. Linguistics graduate Carly Sommerlot (2013) discovered that she could earn an MA at the University of Iowa and a PhD at the University of Texas at Arlington, which led to years of opportunity and adventure studying languages in Indonesia. Nora Carlson’s (2026) experiences in speech-language pathology research at Iowa State expanded her knowledge of the opportunities in the field. Delaney Clark (2025) was impacted by participation in another linguistics research project and recognized her path forward. Erin O’Brien (2025), a Tech Comm graduate, reports how experience in a literature class helped her find her way into a technical communication major. Erin played a role in the early days of the Between the Lines publication.

These recollections from students provide impetus for five new courses that engage and inspire students while helping them to chart their educational and career paths. The new courses launched to innovate the study of communication and language this spring. Read about two technical communication courses, User Experience Research and Writing (ENGL 2150X) and Software and API Documentation (ENGL 3330X), as well as the three linguistics courses, Human Language and Generative AI (ENGL/LING 3260X), Introduction to Communication Disorders (ENGL/LING 2210X), and Animal Communication (LING 1180X). Based on the stories of previous students, we can only begin to imagine the impact of these new courses on current students’ visions of their respective futures.

Linguistics faculty and students were also busy during the Fall semester with a celebration of the 20-year anniversary of the doctoral program in applied linguistics and technology. The celebration took place at the 22nd Technology for Second Language Learning conference, whose theme was Building Knowledge of Generative AI in Applied Linguistics. Started in 2003 by the TESL/applied linguistics faculty, the annual conference has become a tradition, now held in hybrid format, bringing a world of knowledge and enthusiasm to our students.

The 20-year anniversary of the doctoral program in applied linguistics and technology undoubtedly conjured up memories for Professor Charlie Kostelnick, who as English department chair in 2004 was so instrumental in gaining approval for the program. Among Professor Kostelnick’s outsized contributions to students’ learning more broadly, the faculty and 88 alumni of the applied linguistics and technology program remember the pivotal role he played in establishing the program. His story in this issue recounts the evolution throughout the department as a whole, situating the success of the applied linguistics and technology program within an overall narrative of advances in the department.

Other faculty stories include those of our new linguistics faculty member, Professor Lindsey Squires, who is continuing to open doors for students interested in speech language communication, and Professor Evgeny Chukharev, who empowers students eager to develop their analytic skills through the study of language change over time and computational analysis of language today. Finally, Linda Shenk, well-known for her teaching and scholarship of Shakespearean studies, explains how the well-studied narratives of the past come to life in her community work documenting narratives of farm communities in Iowa. It was in Professor Shenk’s class that Erin O’Brien found her way into technical communication!

We hope you enjoy these updates from the English department!