The purpose of the Linguistics Student Association (LSA) at the University of Toronto Scarborough is to enhance the quality of campus life for undergraduates studying in Linguistics or Psycholinguistics. Our association aims to achieve this goal by planning academic events and social functions to provide a space for students to interact and network with professors, alumni and professionals in the field. Seeing as how linguistics is an ever-growing field, we also hope to provide resources, internal or external, for students to get involved with and further their studies in Linguistics or Psycholinguistics. Ultimately, our association is for anyone who shares a fascination for patterns, sounds and the extraordinary power of how we communicate - verbally or non-verbally. If you have any questions regarding our organization, or just want to chat about linguistics, feel free to contact us.
- Email: linguisticsclub.utsc@gmail.com
- Website: https://linguisticsclubuts.wixsite.com/lsautsc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LSAatUTSC
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lsa_utsc/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lsa_utsc
LSA Member Biographies
Tristan McKnight
Tristan is a fourth year student specializing in Linguistics. Her subfields of interest include syntax, morphology, and first language acquisition. Her role as President is to oversee and manage the events and goals of the LSA. She is the official spokesperson of the organization and is responsible for planning the Scarborough Undergraduate Linguistics Conference alongside the Vice-President.
Kiruththika Pushpalingham
Kiruththika is a fourth-year student pursuing a specialist in Psycholinguistics at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Her interests include first language acquisition, language and aging, and paediatric speech disorders. Her responsibilities as Vice-President include supporting the President by acting as a liaison between the faculty, association and student body, overseeing the association, and supporting programming that adds value to the linguistics community at UTSC.In her spare time, Kiruththika likes to play soccer, swim and take walks. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel comfortable approaching her!
Sabrina Pazienza
Sabrina is a fourth-year student pursuing a double major in Linguistics and Mental Health. Her interests include speech/language disorders, first language acquisition and semantics. Her role as the Treasurer for LSA entails overseeing the organization’s finances, keeping track of the organization’s expenses/revenue, and writing/submitting funding applications. With the help of the Administrative Assistant, she is also responsible for LSA’s Monthly Linguistic Social Media Post. During her spare time, Sabrina enjoys going to the gym, hanging out with friends and exploring new endeavours.
Trishanaa Basskaram
Trishanaa is a fifth-year student who is completing a double major in Molecular Biology Immunology & Diseases and Human and Human Biology as well as a minor in Linguistics. Her interests in the linguistic fields lie in phonology and first language acquisition. Her role as the Administrative Assistant for LSA includes maintenance and organization of the club’s correspondences and documents. As well as scheduling and keeping logs of meetings and events.
Leena Hamdan
Leena is a fourth-year student specializing in Psycholinguistics and her interests include syntax, phonetics and first language acquisition. Her responsibility as being one of the LSA’s events directors, is to carry out various events throughout the year which include academic and social functions.
Yasmine Zaman
Yasmine is a fourth-year student who is finishing her Specialist in Psycholinguistics. Her courses of interest include Speech Physiology as well as First and Second Language Acquisition. Her role as one of two LSA Events Directors is to help plan several linguistic-related events during the school year as well as hosting and attending such events.
Julia Passarelli
Julia is a fourth-year student currently completing a specialist in Psycholinguistics. Her interests include morphology, speech physiology and speech disorders. Her role as an Upper-Year representative is to help build community amongst upper and lower-year linguistics students by co-facillitating the Mentorship program. As well, her role includes interviewing upper-year students who will be featured on the LSA Instagram which highlights tips for linguistics students. Julia enjoys watching TV and exploring the city in her spare time.
Kereisha Biggs
Kereisha Biggs is a fourth-year student pursuing a double major in Linguistics and English. Her interests include psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and phonetics. As a Upper-Year Representative, she is responsible for co-facilitating the Mentorship Program, which is an initiative intended to form meaningful connections between lower and upper year students interested in Linguistics as they navigate student life. Kereisha will also help interview upper-year students who will be featured on the LSA’s monthly Linguists of UTSC segment.

Heidi Chan
Heidi is a second-year student specializing in Linguistics. Her subfields of interest include language acquisition, sociolinguistics, and syntax. As a Lower-Year Representative, she is responsible for the Wug Life Initiative that promotes Linguistics to High Schoolers in the area in order to help them understand the field better.
Megan Ewing
Megan is a second-year student specializing in Psycholinguistics and minoring in Biology. Her subfields of interest include sociolinguistics, phonology, language acquisition and morphology. As Lower-Year Representative, she is responsible for co-managing the Wug Life Outreach Initiative that focuses on introducing linguistics to high school students.

Janice Shum
Janice is a third-year student, specializing in Psycholinguistics and minoring in Music and Culture. Her subfields interests includes language acquisition, speech disorders in children, sociolinguistics and phonetics. As a social media coordinator, she is responsible for creating promotional materials for events and initiatives by the LSA, and managing LSA’s various social media platforms.
Nicole Cheung
Nicole is a fourth-year student majoring in linguistics and statistics who has a strong interest in phonetics and language acquisition, especially first language acquisition. She will be working closely with the other Social Media Coordinator this year to bring informative and promotional post on our social media and to keep it active. Remember to follow us on our different platforms @lsa_utsc!