Faruk Akkus is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research is at the intersection of syntax, morphology, and linguistic fieldwork, with a focus on endangered and understudied languages or varieties. He specializes in Arabic varieties, particularly the so-called peripheral varieties, and Iranian languages, as well as Turkish.
David Embick is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. His research in theoretical linguistics concentrates on syntactic approaches to morphology, and their connections with other parts of grammar, including phonology and argument/event structure. Other research interests include the architecture of the language faculty, experimental approaches to lexical access and representation, and the use of neuroimaging and experimental techniques to examine language impairments in different clinical child populations.
Mohammed A. Salih is an independent researcher and consultant, and he holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. He taught Sorani Kurdish at UPenn for two consecutive years, the first such course taught at the university.