Welcome!

Hello! First things first: my CV can be found here. Papers can be found under the “Papers” tab! For media requests or legal consulting, please send me an email! I also make videos about linguistic concepts and current events for the public over on Tiktok!

I am a sociophonetician, specifically interested in how people use linguistic variation to perform and construct their social identities and to understand the identities of others through differences in their use of properties related to intonation and voice quality.  More recently, I’ve been focused on sociolinguistic challenges for speech technology, especially as they relate to the nature of variation and inequality. I also work on political speech and identity, with a special focus on figures such as Barack Obama and Kamala Harris.

 

My ongoing research aims to address how speakers and listeners make social judgments based on acoustic properties, using quantitative methods, with a concentration on prosodic variables. Recently, this line of research has expanded to include analyses of how Socially Prescriptive Speech Technologies (SPSTs) fail to account for sociolinguistic variation and may be used against marginalized speakers. Over the last several years, I’ve taught Language and Society, Sociophonetics, and Prosody and Social Identity. I’ve also taught several semesters of Linguistic Discrimination, which is conducted in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Format.

News and Recent Appearances (for publications, see “Research” tab).

-In March 2026, I will present a talk at USC’s Center for Computational Language Science.

-In February 2026, I will be a colloquium speaker for the Interdepartmental Program in Linguistics at Arizona State University.

-In January 2026, I presented a paper at the LSA Annual Meeting with an excellent group of Berkeley graduate students. The paper is entitled “Identity and Personality in the Social Perception of Synthesized Voices: Perceptions of OpenAI’s text-to-speech technology”.

-In November, I gave a presentation entitled “Socially Prescriptive Speech Technologies Rely on Biased AI Models of Idealized Speech” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention, in Washington, D.C..

– In November, I was at NWAV 53 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. presenting a poster entitled ““Accent Translation” AI Fails to Generate “Standard English” Intonational Patterns.

-In October, I presented a colloquium talk in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Oregon

-In August, it was my pleasure to speak with the amazing Anne Helen Petersen for an episode of the Culture Study podcast, all about American English dialects!

-I spent mid-July 2025 collecting data with graduate students Rhosean Asmah and Niko Schwatz-Acosta for the Berkeley ICBS-funded project “I’ma throw an R in any word that got a U in it: Memphis Rhotacization”.

-On May 17, I was a keynote speaker at the Young Linguists Conference in Poznan, Poland.

-On April 27, I presented a micro-keynote lecture on ethical Speech AI at the Speech for All Workshop at CHI 2025 in Yokohama, Japan.

-On March 1, I gave a talk entitled “Sociolinguistic Challenges for Emerging Speech Technology” at the International Linguistics Association. The Youtube link to the talk is here!

-On February 27, I presented a talk entitled “Sociophonetic Variation and Human Interaction With “AI”-Based Systems in the Department of Anthropology at Vassar College.

-On February 21, I presented a colloquium in the Department of Linguistics at UCLA.

Languages

-Mainstream U.S. English (Native)

-African American English (Native)

-Peruvian Spanish (Near-native)

-Italian (Beginner)

-Bolivian Quechua (Beginnner)

-Cairene Arabic (Beginner)

Education

-Ph.D., Linguistics, New York University (2016). Dissertation Title: Intonational Variation, Linguistic Style, and the Black/Biracial Experience. Supervisor: Renee Blake

-M.A., Linguistics, New York University, New York, NY (2014)

-B.A., Magna Cum Laude with Honors and Research Distinction in Linguistics; Linguistics, Spanish. The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio (2010)

Honors

-Lyle Spencer Research Award. “‘Don’t Take That Tone With Me’: Linguistic Variation and Disciplinary Action on African American Children in Schools”. PI. With Dr. Sabriya Fisher, Co-PI. Award Amount: $878,869 (2020-2023)

-Linguistic Society of America Early Career Award (2023)

-Chau Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship-Pomona College (2016-2017)

-New York University Global Research Initiative Fellowship at NYU Washington, D.C. (2015)

-NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (2015-2016)

-National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2013-2016)

-Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute Fellowship (2013)

Links to Linguists I Like

–All Things Linguistic

–Language Log

–Vocal Fries Pod

–Lingthusiasm Pod

–Because Language Pod