Samuel Jay Keyser

Samuel Jay Keyser is the Peter de Florez Professor Emeritus in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT. He is the founding editor and for the last 50 years editor-in-chief of Linguistic Inquiry. He is also the founding editor of The Linguistic Inquiry Monograph Series and the book series Current Studies in Linguistics, all published by the MIT Press. Aside from seven books and close to 100 articles in the field of theoretical linguistics, he has published two books of poems, Raising the Dead and The Pond God and Other Stories. The latter was designated a 2003 Lee Bennett Hopkins Honor Award for children’s poetry. He has been an occasional commentator on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. He is a jazz trombonist with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, New Liberty Jazz Band and the Dixie Sticklers. He has appeared on more than a dozen CDs. Jay and his photographer wife, Nancy Kelly, have visited 60 countries including Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, the island state of Tasmania and Chile’s Easter Island. They have prepared photo-journals of many of these trips and will be happy to make them available to anyone interested.