Applicant: Seunghun Lee
Grant Amount: ¥300,000

The aim of this proposal is to host the first “Asian Junior Linguists (AJL; tentative title)” conference at ICU in winter 2016. Junior linguists are students who conduct linguistic research prior to the completion of their doctoral degree. While linguistics majors have venues to present in North America and Europe, there are no venues in Asia where these students can disseminate their research. Linguistics programs in Korea and China have already expressed interests in sending their students if ICU were to host this conference. We seek funding from JICUF for hosting plenary speakers: one from abroad in Asia and the other from ICU graduates or affiliates in Japan. ICU has one of the strongest theoretical linguistics programs in Japan. Organization of the first AJL conference with a vibrant student body will benefit ICU students as well as the greater ICU community.