Shigehito Menjo, Ph.D.

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Literature and Languages
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Literature and Languages

In Memory of Shigehito Menjo

Shigehito is remembered by his colleagues, friends and students as immensely kind, generous and reliable. His students felt at ease in his classroom and therefore excelled. A scholarship in his name will assist future international students fund their education in English at A&M-Commerce.

Dr. Menjo graduated from A&M-Commerce with a Ph.D. in English with a specialty in Applied Linguistics in 2018. For his dissertation he studied the acquisition of English prosody (intonation and stress) by Japanese learners of English and contributed new understanding to the field of second language development. He also published several articles co-authored with students and faculty at the Applied Linguistics Lab during his time at A&M-Commerce.

Shige, as he preferred to be called by his friends, was a much-loved member of the Applied Linguistics Lab. He was always ready to help his fellow students in whatever way he could and was a close friend to many of the students and faculty in the department.

In Fall 2018, Dr. Menjo joined the department of Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA where he taught Japanese. Menjo-sensei was a beloved teacher whose care for students was well-known. Many of his students have fond memories of his office hours where he would be happy to chat about any topic of mutual interest. His patience and kindness shone through in the genuine care he felt for his students.

Many of Shige's friends and colleagues wanted to honor his memory and to do so, we have created a memorial scholarship for which we are collecting donations. The Dr. Shigehito Menjo Scholarship is a planned yearly endowed scholarship for a student in the Literature and Languages Department as A&M-Commerce, with a preference for a graduate Applied Linguistics student just like Shige. The size of the gift does not matter. Any contribution gets us closer to the goal. When making your gift, please enter Dr. Shigehito Menjo's name in the comments field to ensure that it goes to the right account. Also, feel free to contact Lucy Pickering ([email protected]) if you have any questions, or would like to make a pledge.

Educational Background

  • Ph.D. English/Applied Linguistics, Texas A&M University-Commerce
  • M.A. Japanese Linguistics and Pedagogy, University of Oregon
  • B.A. Linguistics, University of Oregon
  • B.E. in Mechanical Engineering, Daido Institute of Technology (currently, Daido University), Nagoya, Japan, 1996

Academic Positions

  • Lecturer, UCLA, 2018-2020
  • Instructor (Graduate Teaching Assistant), Texas A&M University-Commerce, 2013 – 2018
  • ESL Instructor (adjunct), English Language Institute (ELI), Texas A&M University-Commerce, 2011- 2012
  • Japanese Instructor/learning associate, Bates College 2008-2009, Japanese Instructor, Emory University, 2010-2011

Selected Publications

  • Gironzetti, E., Pickering, L., Huang, M., Zhang, Y., Menjo, S., and Attardo, S. (2016). Humor, smiling synchronicity and gaze patterns in dyadic humorous conversations. HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research, 29(2), 301-324.
  • Attardo, S., Pickering, L., Lomotey, F., & Menjo S. (2013). Multimodality in conversational humor. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 11(2), 402-416.

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