Kate Yangshuying Zhou
Being a public scholar means recognizing that research is part of a larger process of real-world problem-solving. I see my work not as something that happens only at a desk or in publications, but as a contribution to addressing ongoing social and linguistic challenges. The issues I care about, such as language endangerment and inequity in linguistic representation, cannot be solved by a few academic papers alone. They require collaboration across education, community and policy sectors.
Research description
My research investigates questions systems, specifically HOW and WHY questions, on several minority languages: Ktunaxa in British Columbia and Changsha Hua and Hani, in Southern and Southwestern China respectively. Using truth-conditional compositional semantics, I aim to refine the conceptual distinctions between and HOW and WHY in language and inform the broader field of question semantics with empirical data from under-represented languages. Through fieldwork and collaboration with local communities, my project also contributes to the documentation and revitalization efforts of these minority languages.
What does being a Public Scholar mean?
Being a public scholar means recognizing that research is part of a larger process of real-world problem-solving. I see my work not as something that happens only at a desk or in publications, but as a contribution to addressing ongoing social and linguistic challenges. The issues I care about, such as language endangerment and inequity in linguistic representation, cannot be solved by a few academic papers alone. They require collaboration across education, community and policy sectors. Being a public scholar means engaging with these broader contexts, valuing the knowledge and perspectives of community members, and ensuring that research serves the people whose lives and languages it studies.
In what ways do you think the PhD experience can be re-imagined with this Initiative?
The PhD experience can be re-imagined as a with the perspective that impact begins now and does not need to wait after graduation. Too often, PhD students become tunnel-visioned on their dissertations, assuming that meaningful contributions or public engagement will come only once they secure a faculty position. The Public Scholars Initiative challenges that mindset by encouraging us to see research as part of an ongoing, collaborative effort to address real-world issues. For me, this means viewing my work not as an isolated academic endeavor but as one puzzle piece in a larger network of problem-solving that involves educators, community members and policymakers.
How do you envision connecting your PhD work with broader career possibilities?
I see my PhD work as a foundation for interdisciplinary collaboration beyond academia. The skills I’ve gained in linguistic research and community engagement can translate into roles with educational organizations, NGOs, cultural organizations and museums that promote language and cultural preservation. I’m also interested in working with creative industries and content creators to make linguistic knowledge accessible to broader audiences through multimedia and storytelling. In all these spaces, I hope to apply my expertise to real-world language challenges, bridging theory with practice and contributing to more inclusive, community-centered forms of knowledge sharing.
How does your research engage with the larger community and social partners?
The nature of my research inherently requires community collaboration. I aim to transform fieldwork findings into accessible, cross-linguistic educational materials focused on question systems, making theoretical insights usable for language learners and volunteers. At the same time, orthography remains a separate but essential challenge, as two of the three languages I work on currently lack a unified writing system. This is an issue that can only be addressed through community dialogue and collective effort. My partnerships with linguists, community members and organizations like Dream Corps ensure that research outcomes are both academically rigorous and meaningfully connected to ongoing community-based language initiatives.
Why did you decide to pursue a graduate degree?
I decided to pursue a graduated degree for a selfish reason: because I was not done exploring the questions that puzzled and fascinated me in semantics and wanted more time and training to purse them more extensively. Over the years of my PhD, my motivation has evolved. Through fieldwork and collaborating with diverse language communities, I have come to realize that language cannot be separate from its users, nor from its culture and communities. Each community, in turn, cannot flourish without its language. This shift in perspective has sustained my PhD journey, as I’ve grown to value not only the pursuit of theoretical knowledge but also the responsibility to connect research with the communities that make it possible.
Why did you choose to come to British Columbia and study at UBC?
I chose UBC because of the Department of Linguistics’ strong commitment to Indigenous language research and its long-standing collaborations with local communities. The program’s approach, which integrates theoretical work with community partnerships, resonated with my own goal of conducting research in minority languages in a collaborative and sustainable way. I was deeply interested in fieldwork methods, and the training this department offers reflected that interest. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to learn from a department that not only produces rigorous linguistic scholarship but also sets an example of how research can meaningfully support the communities it engages with.
