Team

After receiving his Ph.D. in Romance Linguistics from the University of Michigan, William Ashby came to the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 1971 to join the faculty of the Department of French and Italian.  In 1991 he became affiliated Professor of Linguistics. Except for a semester as a visiting professor in France, he has spent his entire professional career at UCSB. Professor Ashby’s research focuses on variation and change in the French language.  He has served on the editorial board of The Journal of French Language Studies, French Review, and Romance Philology. He is author or editor of three books and numerous research articles in the field of linguistics. He is currently completing a book on Spoken French (with Bonnie Fonseca-Greber), expected to appear in print in 2019.  At UCSB, he chaired the Department of French and Italian for eight years, during which time he was made knight in the Order of Academic Palms by the French Ministry of Education. He later served as Associate Provost of the College of Creative Studies for three years, then as Provost for twelve years. He retired in July 2006, with 35 years of University service.  He was recalled as Interim Campus Director of the Education Abroad Program for the 2007-08 academic year.