Biography
Sonya Fix had little intention of attending Eastern Michigan University when she first arrived on campus as a senior in high school. Fix and a friend had just spotted a poster in their guidance counselor’s office announcing the test to qualify for EMU’s Presidential Scholarship and they decided to give the exam a shot. Besides, Sonya intended to go to a smaller school in central Ohio and pursue a degree in urban studies. Little did she know that the test would forever change her life. Imagine her surprise when she was offered the opportunity to attend EMU with a full scholarship based on her test scores. After much debate -- but with an offer difficult to refuse -- Sonya decided to attend EMU.
Sonya attributes her interest in Linguistics to the late Professor Keith Denning, who impressed her with his interest in linguistics and expertise in the subject.
Even today at New York University, Sonya is nostalgic for the ethnic, racial and socio-economic diversity that is prevalent at EMU, because it provides professors with a “positive challenge” regarding their teaching techniques.
Although Sonya believes that there is no adequate way to prepare a student for the challenges of graduate school, the projects, conferences, and workshops that EMU linguistics faculty encourage their undergraduate students to attend and participate in help demystify the academic world of graduate studies. The wide variety of subject matter pursued by EMU's faculty also broadens their students' understanding of what linguistics has to offer.
Sonya is currently working on an interesting dissertation that takes an in-depth look at the way in which white women who grow up in racially integrated neighborhoods maintain their connection to African American socio-linguistic roots into adulthood.
Sonya is unsure if she will pursue an academic career after graduation, although most PhD programs prime students toward academia. Ideally, she would like to pursue a career that strikes a balance between research and teaching. She would like to like to help school districts learn how to step away from the model of “standardized English” and learn to appreciate and accept the linguistic variety each person has to offer because she believes that many prejudices are directly linked to language.
-- by Venus Gregory
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