Education
- M.A. Linguistics, University of Kentucky (2018)
- B.A. Spanish and Music Technology, Transylvania University (2015)
Research
My interests touch on numerous disciplines. In general, I am a linguist who focuses on phonetics/phonology, especially with respect to sociocultural contexts. Drawing from linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics, I am most interested in Spanish in the United States, including issues of language contact.
In particular, I am interested in the negotiation of Spanish in relation to power and prestige. Inspired by my time serving in a Mexican restaurant, I am interested in how Spanish operates in multilingual business settings, and how those in power incorporate Spanish, English, and/or Spanglish. Additionally, I am interested in the adoption of the Spanish language in United States pop culture: how is Spanish used by those with social prestige and what this could mean for the future of the language in this country.
Lately, I have been working on cataloguing instances of Spanish used in US entertainment media (what is said, who says it, in what context, notable features, etc.) in order to build a firm knowledge base on Spanish in US pop culture.
Publications & Presentations
- “[v] in United States Spanish.” Poster Presentation. MALTT (University of Kentucky) Graduate Student Conference. Lexington, KY. 17-18 February 2017
- “Using Audacity for Linguistics.” Hands-On Demonstration. LINCD (Linguistics Incubator for Collaborative Digital Research) Session 1 of Fall 2016. Lexington, KY. 21 September 2016.