The State of Linguistics in Higher Education - Annual Report 2017 - Fifth Edition - Issued February 2018

Oct 15, 2026

Annual report presenting the State of Linguistics in Higher Education, Fifth Edition, issued February 2018, summarizing collected data for 2017. It documents trends using sources such as the LSA Directory, membership profiles, COSWL and LGBTQ+ Special Interest Group surveys, government-sponsored surveys, and professional societies, with attention to employment, salaries, degree production, enrollment, financial support, and demographic measures including ethnicity, citizenship, sexuality, and gender identity. The report also introduces longitudinal charts covering 2013–2017 and describes outreach to update institutional listings.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages39

Reading Time1 h 38 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Overview of Trends in Linguistics

Data Sources

LSA Directory

LSA Membership Database

COSWL Departmental Survey

LGBTQ+ Special Interest Group Survey

Government Sponsored Surveys

Professional Societies

Employment

Job Types

Job Types by Gender

Salaries

Degree Production in Linguistics

Number of Degrees Awarded by Gender

Student Enrollment and Financial Support

Ethnicity and Citizenship

Sexuality and Gender Identity

Graduate Student Teaching

Program Specializations

Appendix

The State of Linguistics in Higher Education Annual Report 2017 Fifth Edition Issued February 2018 Acknowledgements This fifth edition of the Annual Report was prepared by a team of LSA student interns and staff, working from the original report prepared by Lauren Friedman and edited by Alyson Reed, LSA Executive Director. The data found in this edition were compiled by Tyler Kibbey, with assistance from Robert Townsend at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Dan Foley at the National Science Foundation, and Katherine Hale from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. The LSA is grateful for the assistance of its Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics (COSWL) in collecting data on the gender demographics of students and faculty from a select group of linguistics departments, and the assistance of the LGBTQ+ Special Interest Group in collecting identity data from LGBTQ+ linguists. The LSA also wishes to thank the scores of linguistics departments and programs that updated information for their respective institutions, and the thousands of LSA members who have provided complete information via their membership profiles. Table of Contents Introduction 4 Overview of Trends in Linguistics 5 Data Sources 5 LSA Directory 5 LSA Membership Database 6 COSWL Departmental Survey 6 LGBTQ+ Special Interest Group Survey 6 Government Sponsored Surveys 7 Professional Societies 7 Employment 7 Job Types 11 Job Types by Gender 15 Salaries 19 Degree Production in Linguistics 21 Number of Degrees Awarded by Gender 26 Student Enrollment and Financial Support 27 Ethnicity and Citizenship 29 Sexuality and Gender Identity 32 Graduate Student Teaching 35 Program Specializations 36 Appendix 38 Introduction For many years, the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) has maintained a Directory of Linguistics Departments and Programs, which has included primarily academic institutions located in the United States and Canada. The print Directory was a well-regarded resource for tracking basic information such as language and sub-field specializations, student enrollment, number and type of degrees conferred, number and rank of faculty positions, and related demographic data for students and faculty. As the Directory evolved into an online resource, it became more difficult to produce an Annual Report with comprehensive information for all of the North American institutions because fewer departments and programs provided data to the LSA. A primary objective of the 2012 LSA website redesign was to develop a much more robust Directory of Linguistics Departments and Programs. This redesigned Directory would serve a number of potential audiences: prospective graduate students, prospective faculty, and administrators seeking benchmarking data. With this overhaul complete, the LSA then embarked on extensive outreach efforts to enlist the participation of “departmental contacts” in order to update the listings for individual institutions. For the 2017 Report, there was a small decrease in the number of reporting institutions from 2016. However, this is likely due to the 2016 survey work of the Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics, which collected new data on gender demographics at participating institutions. The list of participating institutions for the 2017 report is located in the Appendix. The LSA has also monitored and/or participated in a number of national (U.S. ) surveys that track the status of linguistics in higher education. The National Science Foundation (NSF) reports data from two relevant surveys: The Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) and the Survey of Doctoral Recipients. The federal Department of Education conducts and reports data from an annual survey of ~4,200 postsecondary institutions. The most recent available data from all three of these surveys are included in this report, with new data expected in mid-2018 . In addition to these federal data

FAQs

What sources are used to compile the 2017 report’s data?

The report compiles data from the LSA Directory, LSA membership profiles, COSWL and LGBTQ+ Special Interest Group surveys, and national U.S. sources such as NSF and federal education surveys. It also includes selected data from American Academy of Arts & Sciences departmental surveys and related NSF work.

What changes are noted for the 2017 reporting institutions compared with 2016?

The report notes a small decrease in the number of reporting institutions from 2016. It attributes the difference likely to the 2016 survey efforts of COSWL, which collected new gender-demographic data at participating institutions.

How does the report address longer-term trends over time?

It presents the first longitudinal charts covering the first five years of the Annual Report (2013–2017) alongside the 2017 statistics. It also explains the challenge of obtaining data beyond academia, including for industry and government populations.

Oct 15, 2026

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