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I am an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Southern California and the director of the USC PoMMLab (Psycholinguistics of Mono- and Multilingualism Lab).
My research focuses on noun categorization systems, including grammatical gender, animacy, and noun classes. I use formal and psycholinguistic methods to understand how noun category information is represented in the grammar, how it is stored in the mental lexicon, and how it is accessed during real-time processing of agreement. My research targets both monolingual and bilingual speakers (especially heritage speakers) of languages with noun categorization systems. My current work on noun classes in Lubukusu (Bantu, Guthrie classification JE.31c) is funded by NSF Award #2438489 with Co-Investigators Travis Major (USC) and Justine Mukhwana Sikuku (Moi University). I also serve as an Associate Editor for Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. My CV [updated April 2025] is available here. Contact: [email protected] Google Scholar | ResearchGate | LinkedIn |
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Upcoming talks
February 2026
The role of noun transparency in processing of gender during spoken word recognition Fifth International Conference on Heritage/Community Languages @UCLA Authors: Zuzanna Fuchs, Emma Kealey, Esra Eldem-Tunç, Anna Runova, Leo Mermelstein, Julian Patiño March 2026 Facilitative Processing of Gender in the Absence of Overt Morphology [poster] Human Sentence Processing (HSP) @MIT Authors: Esra Eldem-Tunç, Leo Mermelstein, Metehan Oğuz, Julian Patiño, JK Subramony, Seoyoon Hong, Zuzanna Fuchs |
Recent publicationsFuchs, Zuzanna. 2025. Independent processing of lexical agreement features: Evidence from Polish. Language, Cognition & Neuroscience, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2025.2489611
Hailin Hao, Zuzanna Fuchs & Shravan Vasishth. 2025. Similarity-Based Interferences in the Processing of Classifier-Noun Dependencies in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Memory & Language, 144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2025.104669 |
In the mediaInterview with Coopernicus
Appearance as guest expert on LAist's radio show AirTalk, for a segment on re-learning heritage languages Feature on Coopernicus.pl Profile in USC Dornsife news Feature in Harvard Arts & Humanities Instagram Interview with Dobra Szkoła Nowy Jork: "The bridge between science and teaching done on heritage speakers" [available in Polish and English] |