After completing the graduation requirements, Mike Opper has kept busy by giving lectures in China and the US. Mike will begin teaching at the College of International Studies at Southwest University (Chongqing, China) in late August of this year. Mike will be responsible for developing a Master of Arts program in phonology at this institution; he will teach phonology (and possibly phonetics) in fall 2017. The first-year contract offers a "Foreign Expert" position which can later be converted into a tenure-track job.

Mike have given many talks over the past few months. Invited Lectures include: "Mapping Linguistic Boundaries in QGIS" at the North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics at Rutgers University; "Language and Ethnicity in Yunnan" at Minds Abroad in Kunming; and "On the Representation of Phonological Contrast: A Look at Bai" symposium at Southwest University.

Mike defended his dissertation, “Phonological Contrast in Bai,” in December of last year.

The Department of Linguistics wishes Mike good luck in his new position!