Suzanne Evans Wagner

(She/Her)

wagnersu@msu.edu
(517) 355-9739

B401 Wells Hall
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824

FacultyLinguistics, Languages, and CulturesSecond Language Studies

Associate Professor
Linguistics

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1639-0245

Curriculum Vitae

Biography

Ph.D., Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania

Suzanne Evans Wagner conducts research on the social motivations of language variation and language change. She is primarily interested in post-adolescent sociolinguistic modification at all levels of the grammar, and in how change over the individual lifespan interacts with language change at the community level. Some of her work has investigated ongoing sound change in the Lansing, Michigan area. More recently, she has been collaborating with her Linguistics colleague and MSU Sociolinguistics Lab co-director Dr. Betsy Sneller on the MI Diaries project, investigating language change across the entire state. Dr. Wagner’s work has been published in Language Variation and Change, Language in Society, American Speech and Language and Linguistics Compass, among other venues. With Isabelle Buchstaller, she is series editor of Routledge Studies in Language Change, and a co-editor of Panel Studies of Variation and Change.

Projects


MI Diaries

The MI Diaries (‘Michigan Diaries’) project has been collecting informal self-recorded audio ‘diaries’ from children, youth, and adults in Michigan since 2020. Participants receive a weekly email, tailored for their age group, with thoughtful, funny, or story-eliciting questions they can respond to if they wish, such as What are you grateful for this week?, Was there ever a time when you got really lost somewhere?, and Would you rather have three arms or three legs? The growing collection of audio and transcripts contribute to research in the MSU Sociolinguistics Lab and to an eventual public archive at the Library of Michigan.

Media Mentions

Courses

LIN 471 Sociolinguistics
Introduction to the social motivations for language variation and language change.

LIN 871 Advanced Sociolinguistics
Language variation and language change in synchronic and diachronic perspective.

LIN 401 Introduction to Linguistics
How human language is structured, how it varies and changes, how it is acquired by children and by second language learners, and how it is processed in the mind. Covers phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

University News

MSU Researcher Awarded $650K NSF Grant to Expand Educational Opportunities through Linguistics Project
Published August 29, 2024 in College of Arts & Letters
A child watches while an adult, squatting down to be at eye level, shows the child the screen of a mobile phone.
Michigan State University Researcher and Assistant Professor of Linguistics Betsy Sneller was awarded $646,385 from the U.S. National Science Foundation, or NSF, to expand educational opportunities…Read now »
MSU Research Team and MI Diaries Project Foster Community During Challenging Times
Published January 18, 2024 in College of Arts & Letters
A group of four people with laptops sit around a table talking to each other.
This article includes content and personal accounts about the Feb. 13 violence the Michigan State University community experienced and the aftermath. It may be disturbing and upsetting for some…Read now »
Indigenous Language Revitalization a Top Priority for Linguistics Student
Published November 1, 2023 in College of Arts & Letters
A picture of a woman with long brown hair, glasses, and a red shirt with a light pink dress posing beside a poster board.
As a Linguistics major with a minor in Indigenous Studies, Mikayla Thompson has a passion for Indigenous language revitalization and is a proud descendant of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Her…Read now »
NEH Grant to Develop Open-Source Code for Self-Recording Mobile App
Published February 14, 2022 in College of Arts & Letters
College of Arts & Letters’ Assistant Professor of Linguistics Betsy Sneller was awarded a $99,908 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Digital Humanities Advancement…Read now »
MI Diaries Receives NSF Grant to Support Its Expansion
Published October 6, 2021 in College of Arts & Letters
The MI Diaries project, run by MSU’s Sociolinguistics Lab and led by College of Arts & Letters’ Assistant Professor of Linguistics Betsy Sneller and Associate Professor of Linguistics…Read now »
MSU Linguistics Ascends Rankings as a Solid Choice for Scholarship
Published June 22, 2021 in College of Arts & Letters
Michigan State University’s Linguistics program is ranked among the top places in the field for study, research, and employment…Read now »
MI Diaries Project Sees Seven Team Members Graduate
Published May 10, 2021 in College of Arts & Letters
The MI Diaries project, run by MSU’s Sociolinguistics Lab, is providing MSU students with valuable research experience, and many of those students have been with the project from its beginning…Read now »
The MI COVID Diaries Project
Published November 16, 2020 in College of Arts & Letters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0wKn0aJces&feature=youtu.be COVID-19 has had a major impact on people around the world, but how is the pandemic changing our language and the way we…Read now »
Studying How COVID Pandemic Is Affecting Language Change
Published August 5, 2020 in College of Arts & Letters
two kids talking into an iPad
COVID-19 has had a major impact on people around the world, but how is the pandemic changing our language and the way we communicate? That is the question being studied by a team of researchers…Read now »
Understanding the Language of Change Through Linguistics
Published May 26, 2020 in College of Arts & Letters
Suzanne Evans Wagner isn’t telling people how to talk. She’s here to say that people have options and reasons for talking the way they do. An Associate Professor of Linguistics…Read now »
Podcast: Why Language Changes Over Time
Published April 25, 2019 in College of Arts & Letters
man and woman sitting next to one another in a room with black and white checkered walls and microphones on the table
Episode seven of season three of the Liberal Arts Endeavor podcast is out! In this episode, Dean Christopher P. Long discusses why language changes over time with Suzanne Wagner, Associate…Read now »
Enhancing Graduate Education Through Cross College Workshop
Published May 17, 2018 in College of Arts & Letters
a laptop screen showing a student's code
All this week, a cross-college workshop, R Statistics Bootcamp, was offered at Michigan State University, giving graduate students and researchers the opportunity to learn more about the statistical…Read now »
Finding Success in Linguistics Research
Published April 19, 2017 in College of Arts & Letters
a man wearing a red and black checkered button down
Attending Michigan State University was an easy choice for Linguistics major Scott Nelson, whose parents both graduated from MSU, but determining a major wasn’t as easy until he found a home in…Read now »

Videos

What Influences Dialects?

Professor Suzanne Evans Wagner on Teaching at MSU’s Grandparents University