If we aren't already acquainted, please read the following before sending me email:

Questions about my research? Like (almost) all academics, I'm always delighted to discuss my research with a student or researcher who is building on my work. If you have a question about one of my papers, one of my projects, or a resource I've made available, please email me. Relatedly, if you are looking for access to one of the very few of my papers that are paywalled, please feel free to email me for an off-print. (I am not, however, available for tutoring sessions. Please don't ask to interview me for class projects.)

Prospective PhD student? For general questions about the PhD program in the Department of Linguistics, please first read our web page for prospective students. If your question isn't answered there, please contact the Graduate Program Coordinators at linggpc@uw.edu. Please note that PhD admissions at UW Linguistics are done centrally, at the department level, and not by applying to specific faculty members. If your research interests are closely aligned with mine (to the point that you've read some of my work), I would be happy to correspond with you directly about future research directions.

Prospective CLMS student? Please start by reading the program webpage. In particular, you may find the answer to your questions on the planning ahead page or the admissions page. If you would like to receive announcements of program information sessions and similar, please submit your email address with the "Get Updates" button on the program webpage. For questions that can't be answered with these resources, please use email. General or administrative questions should be directed to our Academic Counselor at compling@uw.edu. For other questions, please email me.

Looking to hire CLMS students? I am happy to add your job posting to our jobs database, if it is a reasonable fit. Please email me a link to the job posting or a job description (preferably in the body of your email, and not as an attachment). It may also make sense for you to give an informal presentation in our compling lab meeting.

Looking for an internship/RA position/postdoc? When I have funded RA positions, I hire UW students. I do not take on summer interns. If/when I have a post-doc position to fill, I will post ads in appropriate venues (e.g. the corpora mailing list). I unfortunately don't have time to mentor high school students. If you are in high school and interested in computational linguistics, I highly recommend looking into NACLO.

Prospective visiting scholar? If our research interests are close enough that I have cited your work or you have cited mine, please include specific information about that in your email. Otherwise, my answer will be sorry, but no.

Speaking invitation? I strive to limit my online talks to no more than one per month. If I'm traveling, I like to arrange multiple talks if possible, to amortize the environmental costs of travel. These days, my calendar fills up fairly quickly, but it is always an honor to be invited and I will do my best to reply quickly either way. Note: I don't do unpaid speaking engagements in corporate venues. If you're writing to ask me to come talk to your company (this includes industry research groups), please include the honorarium you plan to offer in the initial email.

Media queries? I am generally happy to speak with the media (time permitting) because I see public scholarship as part of my job. I appreciate it when journalists indicate what they are working on and why they want to talk to me in particular and include pointers to their previous work on similar topics.

Have a cool idea for a start-up using NLP? My consulting fee is $2000/hr. I do not "grab coffee" or "jump on the phone".

My email address is ebender@uw.edu. Please include the word "penguins" in the subject line so that I know that you've read this page. If you've included that but still don't hear back from me, either I am too busy or you asked for something that I cannot provide.

Please know that my email inbox is always flooded. I'm more likely to be able to reply to something if the subject line succinctly states what the message is about, and if each message has only one request in it. If you are unsure about how to email a professor, there are some reasonable tips here.

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