Next fall, the cognitive science program and linguistics departments will merge into one department. The merger proposal was approved by Provost Michelle Mattson in Fall 2024, said Catherine Fortin, current chair of the linguistics department.
After the decision was made, the cognitive science program held a session for students to learn about the merger and voice their opinions. Maya Jable ’25, one of the cognitive science SDAs, said that when talking to other students, she noticed that “people understood why it was happening … so [they] didn’t have a ton of concerns.”
Students were, however, “concerned about the departments remaining separate in areas where they should be” Jable said. “They ended up expressing that in course catalogs they wanted courses to remain separate and listed as either cognitive science or linguistics.”
This concern will be addressed by the faculty of both entities through their “commitment to ensuring that linguistics and cognitive science maintain their own distinct identities,” as expressed by Fortin.
“The majors will remain independent, with no changes for the requirements of either the cognitive science major or the linguistics major,” Kathleen Galotti, the current director of the cognitive science program, said. Accordingly, there will also be no changes to courses, SDAs, comps and advising.
“Faculty in cognitive science and linguistics have developed a plan for a division of administrative responsibilities between the chair and the associate chair,” Fortin said. She said this would be necessary in order to preserve both disciplines’ individual identities.
This plan centers around alternating department chairs between linguistics and cognitive science every three years, with the associate chair position also alternating. “Beginning next academic year, the department of cognitive science and linguistics will have one chair (Kathie Galotti) and one associate chair (Catherine Fortin),” Sally Pierce, the executive assistant to the Provost, said.
The chair and associate chair will each be responsible for different administrative aspects of the department. Department chairs and program directors are responsible for hiring, mentoring and managing the department and its faculty, said Pierce. The chair is also responsible for long-range curricular planning for the department. In the case of the cognitive science and linguistics department, however, Fortin said that the new department would, in many ways, be a collaborative effort.
“All faculty within the department will offer mentorship to junior faculty, with the faculty member(s) whose expertise is best aligned with that of the junior faculty will have a larger role,” Fortin said.
As for the role of associate chair, this position will take over the assessment coordination for the entire department, which, according to the Office of the Provost, is decided through working closely with the chair to “clearly articulate student learning goals for the major/minor” and “develop… a plan that indicates how each learning goal will be assessed.” Fortin also said tthe associate chair will “advise majors and prospective majors within their division.”
The Office of the Provost say that “departments with fewer than 100 majors or fewer than an average of 50 courses offered per year, but that have unusually complex programs or ongoing administrative demands, may also propose to add an associate chair position.” As of the 2024-2025 academic year, the cognitive science and linguistics departments have a combined total of 44 majors, and each department offers fewer than an average of 50 courses per year.
The addition of an associate chair position to the upcoming cognitive science and linguistics department is part of the commitment to maintain separate majors, which is the main administrative demand facing the merged departments. Despite having fewer majors and courses than would necessitate an associate chair, the newly merged departments think the added role will be useful for navigating the complexity of joining two disciplines.
Galotti cited the small “number of faculty in each entity” as the main reason for the merge, adding that “it made sense to come together and form a larger group to mentor junior faculty, deal with administrative tasks, etc.”
As of the 2024-2025 academic year, the cognitive science program has four core faculty members. Similarly, the linguistics department has three core faculty members, including the department chair and one non-tenure-track faculty member.
Kieran Barker ’25, one of the cognitive science student departmental advisers (SDAs), said that, “cognitive science is quickly outgrowing its status as just a program.”
The program, which officially became a major in 2017, currently has 34 majors and seven minors, which is larger than other programs such as American studies, which has 13 majors and minors, and Environmental Studies, which has 25 majors and minors.
Barker added that the merge was “a strategic move … to accommodate [cognitive science’s growth]”, as “linguistics and cognitive science have similar enough aims, and there’s a good set of faculty who have specialty in both.”
Of the 16 affiliated faculty members featured in the cognitive science faculty and staff website, two are professors of linguistics, while five are professors of computer science and four of psychology. Other departments include philosophy, biology, music, economics and American studies.
The cognitive science program is described as exploring questions “undertaken in such disciplines as cognitive psychology, linguistics, philosophy, artificial intelligence, robotics, neuroscience, education, social cognition, cognitive anthropology, behavioral economics and others.” On the other hand, the linguistics department focuses on “the study of the human language faculty,” centering on the origins and development of language.
Jeni Sandau, the administrative assistant for cognitive science, stated that one of the other reasons for these specific departments merging was the fact that “a lot of other similarly sized institutions run with combined departments.”
“Faculty members from both linguistics and cognitive science participated in visits to Wellesley College and Pomona College, which led to the conclusion that a combined department was a feasible model” Fortin said.
The cognitive & linguistic Sciences program at Wellesley College offers a major in cognitive & linguistic sciences, described as “the interdisciplinary investigation of the nature of thought and language.” Catherine Wearing, the director of the cognitive and linguistic sciences program at Wellesley, explained that all faculty members, including psychology and philosophy professors, “work together in doing faculty searches, in mentoring our junior faculty, and in advising students.”
The linguistics and cognitive science department at Pomona College describes itself as taking a “multidisciplinary approach to language and the mind.” It requires students to take core courses in both disciplines and then choose to follow the linguistics or cognitive science track.
According to Lise Abrams, chair of the linguistics and cognitive science department at Pomona, “each major has its own “coordinator,” so the linguistics coordinator handles [hiring, mentoring, advising] within linguistics, and the cognitive science coordinator handles those things within cognitive science.”
The cognitive science and linguistics department at Carleton will take inspiration from the models explored at Wellesley and Pomona. The new department will combine the collaborative approach used in Wellesley with the specialized system at Pomona, ensuring that all faculty members work together administratively while maintaining separate majors.
When asked about the possible impacts of the department merge on both majors, Galotti and Fortin both said they anticipated no changes to any aspect of the majors.
“The combined department will offer more formal opportunities for community-building,” Fortin said. Beginning next year, the department hopes “to offer many events that are of interest to both sets of students, such as guest speakers whose research intersects with both disciplines.”
Jable is optimistic and said she hopes that “joint funding for both departments” could lead to “a nicer space for cognitive science and linguistics” and “better funding for some events.”
Additionally, Jay McKinney, who was recently hired as an assistant professor of cognitive science, said they will “love to see what happens when our areas come together … to explore more creative things.”