Welcome to the 2026–2027 academic year, and a warm welcome to our new cohort of graduate students! We’re excited to introduce the four first-years joining our Rutgers Linguistics community. Each of them has shared a short introduction so we can all get to know them a little better. Read on to meet the newest members of our department!
Welcome to Rutgers Linguistics!
Junwoo Lee
Hello. My name is Junwoo Lee, and I was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea.
I majored in psychology as an undergraduate. I chose to do so because as a high school student, I thought that psychology was the only field through which I could investigate how thoughts are turned into sentences. However, after taking a syntax class, I realized that syntax offered another way of studying how sentences are formed. I was also fascinated by how a syntactic approach analyzes sentences, which led me to pursue a master’s degree in syntax. (But I still have fond memories of studying psychology too, especially cognitive psychology.)
My master’s thesis focused on Korean fragment answers. I believe that syntactic theory should be as “simple” as possible, although what “simple” means itself is a matter of ongoing debate. For me, it means minimizing theoretical concepts that are motivated solely by theoretical reasons. Based on this perspective, my thesis argues against movement-based approaches to fragment answers, which leads to discarding many syntactic mechanisms.
Despite this, I still consider myself a syntactician, as I remain interested in the process of sentence formulation.
I am primarily interested in syntax, with particular interests in ellipsis, coordination, relative clause, and, of course, Korean. I am also interested in semantics, as many of these topics are closely connected to semantics as well. I am not yet sure what specific topic I will pursue in the future, and my research interests may be totally different from those mentioned above, but I hope to discover and develop new questions during my time at Rutgers.
Outside of academics, I enjoy reading novels and listening to music. As for novels, I like novels in which an asocial or antisocial main character observes and describes the world. As for music, I mostly listen to rock and classical music.
Sukchan Lee
Hi everyone! My name is Sukchan Lee, and I’m from Seoul, South Korea.
Before coming to Rutgers, I was at the College of Liberal Studies at Seoul National University, where I double-majored in linguistics and computer science. I quickly became interested in syntax, which led me to pursue a master’s degree in linguistics. Then I went to CreteLing 2024, met a ton of amazing students and professors, and ended up getting really into semantics! I describe myself as a person who is “trying to do both syntax and semantics,” because I don’t want to say I’m doing interface when I don’t have a clear understanding of what that actually means. I have worked on topics such as (negative) imperatives, honorification, polarity-sensitive items and conditional dis/conjunction. I’d love to take these projects further, but I’m also really open to exploring whatever else catches my interest.
Outside of linguistics, I am a huge fan of music, films, swimming, and board games. (Yes, that is me in the photo holding Azul at a board game shop!) If anyone is looking for company to go to the movies, head over to Werblin, or catch a music festival or gig, please reach out. I’ve heard several of you enjoy board games too, so I’m really looking forward to playing with you all!
Ka Hin Ng
Hi all! You can call me Sashimi or Ka Hin, whichever you prefer. He/him. I work on semantics, and did my BA and MPhil at CUHK (both supervised by the incredibleYenan Sun – check her work out!!). I spend most of my spare time watching AI-animated brainrot videos, though I also swim and gym occasionally. Feel free to be direct with me – I actually like straightforward people. Nice to meet you all!
Zijing Xu
Hi everyone! I’m Zijing (pronounced roughly like “Tsi-Jing”).
My journey into linguistics started somewhat serendipitously during a summer school in Xi’an, China, where I first encountered linguistic theory. I completed my B.A. in English and M.A. in Linguistics, which naturally sparked my passion for laboratory phonology. Later, while working as a Research Assistant at CUHK, I began diving into language acquisition (including running 300+ infant behavioral experiments) and computational phonology. Broadly speaking, I’m deeply curious about the nature of phonological generalizations and the cognitive mechanisms underlying human language learning, and I’m thrilled to continue exploring these questions here at Rutgers!
Outside of academia, you can usually find me sticking to my daily fitness routine, whether that’s working out or going for outdoor runs (always down for a gym buddy!). I also love cooking and trying out new recipes. Musically, I’m a big fan of Taylor Swift and I often use music and journaling to clear my head whenever life gets chaotic. I also take film photos and make vlogs to document life—though I mostly keep them private. Lately, I’ve been trying to pick up Spanish on Duolingo.
I’m excited to start the new chapter and can’t wait to meet everyone ~