ABOUT ME

​​​I am currently a postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan, sponsored by National Science Foundation's Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic (NSF's SBE) Sciences. I received my PhD in Linguistics at the University of Southern California​​​​ in May 2018. I did my postdoc training in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at UCLA School of Medicine. While at UCLA, I taught courses as Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics. 

My linguistic research on spoken language fits under the umbrella of cognitive science, as the field of phonetics stands at the interface of speech action and perception. The scope of my research encompasses prosodic dynamics in speech, intergenerational language change, lexical access, interactional speech, and linguistic and personal aspects of voice quality. ​​​​I've extended the scope of this work to different modalities, including co-speech gestures (new project awarded by NSF [link]) and ASL.

The vocal tract actions deployed in spoken language are systematically governed by both contrastive (i.e., meaning encoding) properties of a word's segments and simultaneously by the structured informational aspects of the speaker’s plan, collectively referred to as phrase-level prosody. The goal of my research program is to understand how speakers integrate prosodic (phrasal and rhythmic) information with speech gestures while planning and producing words and phrases. Click here to learn more about my research.

​​​​​While at USC, I was actively participating in various projects as a member of the USC Phonetics and Phonology Group, the Speech Production and Articulation kNowledge group (SPAN), and the Zevin Lab.​​ I am continuing to work with my colleagues at the UCLA Bureau of Glottal Affairs (Facebook: @UCLABGA).

Click here for my CV with downloadable publications.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me.