Mina Hirzel

Mina Hirzel is a sixth-year graduate student in the Linguistics Department at the University of Maryland and a Research Fellow at the Maryland Language Science Center (MLSC). Her research focuses on first language acquisition, with emphasis on syntax, semantics, and sentence processing, particularly exploring topics such as wh-questions, argument structure, verb learning, and syntactic bootstrapping. She is advised by Ellen Lau and Jeffrey Lidz.

Before joining UMD, Mina conducted research at Michigan State University under Alan Munn, Cristina Schmitt, and Dr. Laura Dilley, investigating noun-noun compounds, contrastive focus/reduplication, and speech prosody. She is part of a vibrant six-member cohort in the UMD Linguistics Department, alongside peers such as Sigwan Thivierge, Anouk Dieuleveut, and Rodrigo Ranero.

Mina’s work bridges theoretical linguistics and experimental methods, with a focus on child language development and the interplay between syntax, semantics, and processing. Her prior involvement in labs like the Language Acquisition Lab and Speech Perception-Production Lab underscores her multidisciplinary approach to language science.