Ethan Kutlu

Greetings,

Thanks for visiting my website. My name is Ethan. I am a passionate cognitive scientist specializing in developmental and experimental linguistics. I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Iowa. The overarching theme of my work lies in understanding how our personal networks impact the ways in which we perceive language. I particularly focus on multilingualism (especially heritage bilingualism and racialized bilingual communities) and how it is perceived as well as how multilinguals perceive linguistic spaces. My research uses an interdisciplinary tour de force of various techniques, ranging from behavioral experiments and social network questionnaires to electrophysiological methods such as event-related potentials (ERPs). I have employed corpus linguistics in examining language ideologies and change. On this website, you can find summaries of my research, teaching, and outreach activities.

I have two complementary passions: food and photography. I believe cooking is an act of creating a self-sustainable project. We aim to cook things that make us happy and healthy, but oftentimes we sacrifice those with unsustainable practices either by convenience or by prioritizing other things in our lives. Cooking grounds my research and teaching practices as I get to experience patience, practice, and failure in the kitchen almost every day.

Photography, on the other hand, is about control and taming the perfectionist mind. Often times, as observed in many scholars, I experienced the worry of perfection. Is this the best version or should I work on it a little bit more? Photography teaches me to act fast and be more intuitive as, in some cases, there is no such view as the one that I have in the present. Through photography, I practice being in the moment, and not trying to control the future nor obliging myself to pursue unattainable practices.

A part of my core functions on the basis of activism. I work actively to support Women in Cognitive Science and am currently working on raising awareness for trans scientists in academia. I serve as the co-chair of the communications committee for the Society for Research in Child Development's Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression Caucus, and am open to any other ideas to advance the current situation of minorities around the world. 

If you are interested in my research, please follow me on ResearchGate, Twitter (@ethankutlu) or contact me directly via email (ethankutlu@gmail.com). For a quick overview of my dissertation work, you can watch my TEDxUF talk below. If you are looking for a scientific consultation regarding linguistics or language learning, I provide free consultations. If you are a teacher who is passionate about informing your students regarding linguistic discrimination, I am happy to come to your class. 

I’ll be accepting graduate students (Fall 2024). Please get in touch to learn more about the funding opportunities in my lab.

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