Working With Me

Dr. Yang Janet Liu | University of Pittsburgh

Thank you for your interest in working with me! I'm always excited to hear from prospective students and collaborators who share my enthusiasm for computational linguistics, discourse phenomena, and NLP. This page provides information about opportunities to join my research group.

🎓 Prospective PhD Students

I recruit PhD students through the Department of Linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh. If you're interested in working with me, please submit your application through the official graduate admissions portal.

Application Information:

Application deadline: Check the Linguistics department website for current deadlines
Program: Apply to the PhD in Linguistics with a computational focus
Mention me: Please indicate in your statement that you're interested in working with me

Research Areas I Supervise:

The best way to understand the topics I work on is to explore my recent publications. I'm particularly interested in supervising projects related to:

Discourse phenomena: RST parsing, discourse relation classification, cross-framework approaches to discourse understanding
Text variation & genre: How NLP models handle diverse text types, modalities, and domains
Model generalization: Understanding what linguistic knowledge LLMs capture and how well they generalize across languages and frameworks
Evaluation & summarization: Developing better evaluation methods for genre-diverse texts, especially for LLM outputs
Multilingual NLP: Cross-lingual discourse analysis and resource development
Corpus annotation: Large-scale annotation projects for discourse-level phenomena

What I'm Looking For:

I welcome students from diverse backgrounds. You might be a good fit if you have:

Strong interest in computational approaches to linguistics or linguistic approaches to NLP
Background in linguistics, computer science, NLP, or a related field
Experience with programming (Python preferred) and familiarity with NLP tools/frameworks
Interest in empirical, data-driven research methods
Enthusiasm for working with corpora and annotations

🔬 Postdoctoral Researchers

I'm open to hosting postdoctoral researchers who share research interests with my group. While I don't currently have advertised positions, if there's a strong fit, I'm happy to explore funding opportunities together, including joint fellowship applications.

Interested postdocs: Please email me with your CV, a brief description of your research interests, and how they align with my work. If you're interested in applying for external funding together, reach out at least 6-12 months before your desired start date.

🎒 Master's Students

Master's students in Linguistics or related programs at Pitt are welcome to discuss potential research collaborations. I typically work with master's students who:

Have taken at least one course with me and demonstrated strong performance
Are interested in conducting an MA thesis with a computational/corpus focus
Have prior research experience or relevant technical skills

If you're considering an MA thesis, please reach out early in your program so we can plan appropriately.

👥 Undergraduate Students (Pitt)

I welcome Pitt undergraduate students to get involved in research! The best way to start is to:

Take one of my courses to learn about the research topics and methods
Attend my research group meetings to understand the ongoing projects
Reach out via email to discuss specific opportunities

Undergraduate research opportunities may include annotation projects, corpus analysis, running experiments, or assisting with data processing. Unfortunately, I generally don't have capacity to supervise students from other institutions.

💬 Research Collaborators & Visitors

I'm always open to collaborations with researchers who share overlapping interests, particularly in discourse annotation, cross-framework resource development, or multilingual NLP. If you're interested in collaboration or visiting my research group, feel free to reach out with a brief description of potential projects.

✉️ Getting in Touch

Email: jal787 [@] pitt [dot] edu

When reaching out, please include:

A brief introduction of your background and interests
How your interests align with my research
Your CV or relevant experience
What type of position you're interested in

Note on response time: I receive many inquiries and may not be able to respond to all emails individually, especially during application seasons. If you're applying to the PhD program, the best way to ensure I see your application is to mention my name in your statement of purpose. I review all applications that express interest in working with me.

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