About Me:

I am currently a post-doctoral scholar at UC Davis, where I work at the Phonetics Lab with Dr. Georgia Zellou.

I recently graduated with a PhD in Linguistics from UC Davis in Spring 2026. My dissertation, which can be accessed here, is titled "From Idiosyncrasy to Generalization: The Role of Sociolinguistic Experience on Adaptation to Novel Talkers".

My research interests include phonetics/phonology, speech perception, psycholinguistics, cognitive science, sociolinguistics, and human-computer interaction. Please click here to access my full CV.

I am also passionate about teaching, and I won the UC Davis Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award in Spring 2026! Please click here to view some of my sample course materials and here to read some sample evaluations.

Updates:

6/28/26: I presented "Hey Alexa, are you glitching on me?: Investigating phonological adaptation and generalization across human and device guises" at the 20th Conference on Laboratory Phonology (LabPhon) in Montréal along with Georgia Zellou.

6/11/26: I officially graduated with a PhD in Linguistics! Hooray!

5/27/26: I won the inaugural Bob Bayley Award ($1200) through the UC Davis Department of Linguistics! Honoring Bob Bayley's memory, this award "recognizes outstanding achievement across any area of linguistics".

5/19/26: I am thrilled to have won the UC Davis Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award ($1000) for my work as an instructor!

5/14/26: I presented "Hey Alexa, are you glitching on me?: Investigating phonological adaptation and generalization across human and device guises" at the 190th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Philadelphia along with Georgia Zellou.

3/4/26: I will teach LIN 111 (Introduction to Phonological Theory) for the Spring 2026 quarter.

1/10/26: I presented "Apparent talker variability and speaking style similarity can enhance comprehension of novel L2-accented talkers: Evidence for numerosity and similarity accounts of cross-talker generalization" at the 2026 Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting in New Orleans along with Georgia Zellou.

1/5/26: I will teach LIN 103A (Linguistic Analysis I: Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology) for the Winter 2026 quarter.

12/16/25: Georgia Zellou and I have a new paper that has been published in Language and Speech! The paper is titled: "Apparent talker variability and speaking style similarity can enhance comprehension of novel L2-accented talkers". The paper is available at this link.

12/4/25: I presented "Apparent talker variability and speaking style similarity can enhance comprehension of novel L2-accented talkers: Evidence for numerosity and similarity accounts of cross-talker generalization" at the 189th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Honolulu along with Georgia Zellou.

11/10/25: I received a Graduate Student Travel Award ($500) from the UC Davis Department of Linguistics to attend the 2026 LSA Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

11/5/25: I received a Student Transportation Award ($150) to attend the 189th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Honolulu.

10/24/25: I gave an invited talk on my adaptation research at UC Berkeley's Phonetics, Phonology and Psycholinguistics Forum (Phorum).

9/25/25: I will teach LIN 001 (Introduction to Linguistics) for the Fall 2025 quarter.

6/25/25: Maryam Bamshad, Karina Xie, Rema Rasheed, Kathryn Holt, Grace Assabil-Bentum, and I have a new paper that has been published in Frontiers in Psychology! The paper is titled: "Exposure to subtle dominance cues in asymmetric power relationships activates the stress response and affects decision-making". The paper is available at this link.