The 2026 Lisa Sansoucy Language Scholar Award has been awarded to Evelyn Elmer Fettes, a Ph.D. candidate in linguistics. Evelyn completed advanced studies of Indonesian through the Shared Course Initiative (SCI) and is currently conducting field research in Indonesia for her dissertation on syntactic microvariation in nominal phrases of Western Malayo-Polynesian languages.
Named in memory of our colleague Lisa Sansoucy, who passed away in 2021, the award recognizes a student who excels in learning a less commonly taught language through the SCI and demonstrates a profound commitment to language and cultural engagement. Evelyn's lifelong passion for language learning and intercultural understanding embodies the spirit of the award. Her work reflects a sustained commitment to linguistic diversity, community building, and cross-cultural exchange.
Evelyn studied Spanish and Arabic as an undergraduate at Bard College before spending eight years traveling and working as an ESL teacher in Thailand, China, and Indonesia. She received her master's degree in linguistics from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, and, during her Ph.D. program at Cornell, studied Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ and Indonesian with support from Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships. During the summers of 2024 and 2025, she studied Javanese in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, also with FLAS support. She is currently living in Bandung, Indonesia, where she has begun learning Sundanese.
Evelyn enjoys studying languages because "there are so, so many moving parts and tiny ways that they differ from each other across multiple dimensions (sounds, words, grammar, etc.)," she explains. "It's an endless, exciting field of study, and I know I'm never going to get bored with what I do."
Her Indonesian professor and nominator, Jolanda Pandin, noted that Evelyn stands out as a lifelong language learner with a strong commitment to giving back to language-learning communities. After completing Cayuga Language and Culture I and II courses at Cornell, Evelyn served as a teaching assistant for the introductory level and facilitated Cayuga and Indonesian Conversation Hours at the LRC.
We are honored to celebrate Evelyn's achievements and extraordinary language-learning journey. Congratulations!
If you are interested in contributing to this award, you can donate here:
