Awardee: Michael Diercks is a linguist who studies languages of East Africa. He specializes in areas of syntax and morphology, investigating the possible cognitive structures that human language can take. His Hahn project was typesetting a syntax textbook that will be made available Open Access online, and is already in use for courses at Pomona College.
Student Assistants/TAs: Xiaoxing Yu (Pomona ’25), Charis Kim (Pomona ’24)
Title: Open Access Syntax Textbook
Goal: Michael’s project goal aims to address the issue of equitable access to textbooks in higher education by creating an Open Access textbook in syntax, Michael’s sub-field within linguistics. The project aims to convert a existing textbook drafts into LaTeX format for proper typesetting which will then allow for the publication and distribution through the library’s Pressbooks platform. This Open Access textbook will be used in his courses at Pomona College while also being freely accessible to all students, the public, and scholars worldwide.
Project Outcome: Creating a syntax textbook to be made accessible to students worldwide is a hefty objective, but the entirety of the textbook–including answer keys, problem sets, and class handouts–has now been typeset to be made available online through Open Access, with the help of Pomona students Xiaoxing Yu and Charis Kim who shared with us their motivations for joining the project:
Michael along with his student assistants, Xiaoxing and Charis, were kind enough to showcase the work that was done in this project through a video interview. If you are curious about the process taken to accomplish the project’s goals, the video below will provide some insight:
This past fall, students in the LGCS 105 course piloted the textbook, offering feedback to be integrated moving forward. And an instructor’s manual is currently underway!