Ilse Lehiste, one of the first women to hold a Ph.D. in the field of linguistics, will receive the Alumnae Council’s 1994 Athena Award. Lehiste, who received her Ph.D. from the U-M 1959, is one of the most recognized scholars in her field.
“Prof. Lehiste is a distinguished educator and researcher in the phonetic study of human language,” said Thomas E. Toon, director of the Program in Linguistics. Her work has focused on understanding how the sounds and sound patterns of language are produced, transmitted, perceived and understood. Her current work explores the relationship between the metrical structure of poetry and the rhythms of speech.”
The Athena Award, established in 1973, is presented each year to a U-M alumna for professional excellence and public service.
The award will be presented by Paul Boylan, vice provost for the arts and dean of the School of Music, at the annual Athena Luncheon at 12:30 p.m. Friday (June 10), in the Michigan League Ballroom. A reception follows in the Kalamazoo Room.
Lehiste also will deliver an address, “The Perception of Features and the Listener’s Language Background,” to the Department of Linguistics at 4 p.m. Thursday (June 9) in the East Conference Room, Rackham Building.
Lehiste has received three honorary doctorates—from the University of Essex in England in 1977, from the Uni-versity of Lund in Sweden in 1982, and from the University of Tartu in Estonia in 1989. She has published 11 books and monographs.
Lehiste was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1969-70, and again in 1975-76. She received the Order of the Yugoslav Flag with Golden Wreath in 1988, and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1990. She has been president of the Linguistic Society of America, and co-editor of Bibliotheca Phonetica, Journal of Phonetics, an honeticica. In 1983, shcame a member of the Permanent Council of the Organization of International Congresses of Phonetic Sciences.
Reservations for the luncheon are $17 and can be made by calling 763-9708. Checks payable to the U-M Alumni Association should be sent to the Alumnae Council, Alumni Center, 200 Fletcher St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1007.
