Luis Alonso-Ovalle (2006 UMass PhD) has become the chair of the McGill Linguistics Department this Fall, succeeding Bernhard Schwarz (2000 UMass PhD). During the last years, the McGill Linguistics Department has developed a unique profile through the interplay of “theoretical and experimental linguistics, with special emphasis on the understanding of language diversity and how this diversity may be related to a universal underlying linguistic competence … The department places a strong emphasis on methodology, with specialists in experimental, computational, and fieldwork methodologies.” Source: McGill Linguistics Department website.