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Graduate Alumni

2020-2016 | 2015-20112010-2006 | 2005-2001 | 2000-1996 1995-1992

2023

Amelia Stecker
Dissertation: Social expectations in linguistic memory
Current Affiliation: TBA

Hyosik Kim
Dissertation: Understanding Ellipsis: Internal Structure, Connectivity Effects, and Incremental Processing
Current Affiliation: TBA

Maria Gavino
Dissertation: The effect of experience and attitudes on heritage bilinguals’ language processing
Current Affiliation: Postdoc, Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego

Wesley Orth
Dissertation: Active Assignment of Quantifier Scope Guides Language Processing
Current Affiliation: Postdoc, Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto

Jaime Benheim
Dissertation: High School Choice and the Social Meanings of Sound Change in Chicago
Current Affiliation: Visiting Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Brown University

Lisa Cox (M.A.)
Thesis: Phonetic Sensitivity in Adult Word Learning
Current Affiliation: TBA

2022

Nicole Mirea
Dissertation: Role of Prior Knowledge in Adult Learning of Second-Order Phonotactic Generalizations for Speech Production
Current Affiliation: Data Scientist,  Plinth Analytics

Qile Chen (M.A.)
Thesis: Will knowing more English reduce the perceptual illusions in Mandarin Chinese?
Current Affiliation: Data analyst, Northwestern University, Student Affairs

Jordan Hosier (M.A.)
Thesis: Generalization in Accent Adaptation as Hierarchical Bayesian Inference
Current Affiliation: Lead Quantitative Researcher in Natural Language Processing at Vail Systems, Inc.

Anna Robinson (M.A.)
Thesis: A role for rhythmicity in speech intelligibility
Current Affiliation: ESL Instructor, Department of Linguistics, Northwestern University

C. Michael Senko (B.A./M.A.)
Thesis: Transgressing the binary: Gendered language practices on Twitter
Current Affiliation: Teacher, Winston Prepatory School

2021

Peter Baumann
Dissertation: Incremental Structure Building and Islands
Current Affiliation: Machine Learning Engineer at Bloomberg

Yunyan Duan
Dissertation: Word Identification and Eye Movement Control in Reading as Rational Decision Making
Current Affiliation: Data Scientist at Tencent, Shenzhen, China

Kathleen Hall
Dissertation: Relations and Structure: A View from Dependency Resolution
Current Affiliation: Research operations manager at Neurobehavioral Systems

Daniel Tucker
Dissertation: Polarity and Comparison at the Interface of Language and Cognition
Current Affiliation: Data Scintist at Home Chef

2019

Samantha Heidenreich
Dissertation: Disjunctive Questions: Experimental Evidence in Prosody and Discourse
Current Affiliation: Independent Contractor at Lionbridge

Tommy Denby
Dissertation: The Voice of Experience: Causal Inference in Phonotactic Adaptation
Current Affiliation: Analytical Linguist, Google, Los Angeles

Nayoun Kim
Dissertation: Hold, Release, and Retrieve: The Study of Wh-Filler-Gap Dependencies and Ellipsis
Current Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea

2018

Jeremy Needle
Dissertation: Gradient Typicality and Indexical Associations in Morphology
Current Affiliation: Post-Doc, Department of Linguistics, Cornell University

Robert Alex Schumacher
Dissertation: Prepositions and Verbs in the Syntax and the Lexicon
Current Affiliation: Founder and Head of Data Science, Claira, London, UK

Michael Blasingame
Dissertation: Early versus Extended Exposure in Speech and Vocabulary Learning: Evidence from Switched-dominance Bilinguals
Current Affiliation: Data Analyst at Healthvana

2017

David Potter
Dissertation: The Island (In)Sensitivity of Stripping
Current Affiliation: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of English, Morehead State University

Julie Matsubara
Dissertation: The Semantics and Pragmatics of the Japanese Evidentials -Rashii, -Sooda, and -Yooda: an Experimental Investigation
Current Affiliation: Director, English Language Institute, University of Chicago

Haley Farkas (M.A.)
Dissertation: Verification And Acquisition Of Verbal Comparatives
Current Affiliation: Knowledge Engineer, Expert System USA

2016

Erin Gustafson
Dissertation: The Role of Linguistic Experience in the Production and Perception of Probabilistic Reduction
Current Affiliation: Lead Data Scientist at Duolingo

Angela Cooper
Dissertation: Perceptual Learning of Accented Speech by First and Second Language Listeners
Current Affiliation: Associate at BEworks, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Angela Fink
Dissertation: The Role of Domain-General Executive Functions, Articulation, and Conceptualization during Spoken Word Production
Current Affiliation: Project Manager and Research Scientist at the Center for the Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education at Washington University in St. Louis

Kyounghee Lee
Dissertation: Neutralization of Coda Obstruents in Korean: Evidence in Production and Perception
Current Affiliation: Lecturer, Department of English, Hanyang University

Clayton Bryson (M.A.)
Dissertation: Preposition Stranding, Sluicing, And Recoverability
Current Affiliation: TBA

2015

Michael Frazier
Dissertation: Morphological recoverability in Gapping
Current Affiliation: Postdoctoral researcher, University of Leipzig

Lauren Ackerman
Dissertation: Influences on Parsing Ambiguity
Current Affiliation: Research Associate in Psycholinguistics, Newcastle University

L. Ann Burchfield
Dissertation: Flexibility of Speech Perception and Production Strategies in Mandarin-English Bilinguals
Current Affiliation: English tutoring services

2014

Svetlin Dimov (M.A.)
MA Thesis: Effects of Vowel Production Peripheralization, Accuracy, and Consistency on the Intelligibility of Foreign-accented Speech
Current Affiliation: Marketing Science Partner at Facebook

Lisa Dawdy-Hesterberg
Dissertation: The Structural and Statistical Basis of Morphological Generalization in Arabic
Current Affiliation: Data Scientist, Google

Charlotte Ruth (Roger) (M.A.)
MA thesis: "The effect of explicit instruction and incomplete neutralization on the learning of final devoicing"
Current Affiliation: Director of Capture Management at Jaxon, Inc.

Charlotte Vaughn
Dissertation: Language-Being-Spoken and Other Indexical Dimensions in Monolingual and Bilingual Speech Processing
Current Affiliation: Instructor, University of Oregon

Jordana Heller
Dissertation: Contextual Constraints on Phonological Activation during Sentence Production
Current Affiliation: Language and Data Science Manager, Textio

2013

Karen Chu (M.A.)
Dissertation: Investigating Novel Word Blends Using Games With A Purpose
Current Affiliation: TBA

Chelsey Cooley (M.A.)
Dissertation: An Empirical Investigation Of The Use And Meaning Of Weak Definites
Current Affiliation: Higher Education Professional

2012

Midam Kim
Dissertation: Phonetic Accommodation after Auditory Exposure to Native and Nonnative Speech
Current Affiliation: Lecturer, School of Business, The University of Kansas

Honglei Wang
Dissertation: The Syntactic Structure of Nominal Phrases
Current Affiliation: Beihang University in China

Caroline Engstler
Dissertation: Language Retention and Improvement After a Study Abroad Experience
Current Affiliation: EF Education First, Senior Language Education Specialist, Zurich, Switzerland

Jenna Luque (M.A.)
Dissertation: The Benefit Of Clear Speech Production By Nonnative Speakers: The Effect Of L1 And Proficiency
Current Affiliation: Instructor, University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee

2011

Elizabeth Mazzocco (M.A.)
MA Thesis: On the Nature of Conventionalized Indirect Requests
Current Affiliation: An associate at Foley & Lardner LLP.

Kenneth Konopka
Dissertation: The Vowels of Mexican Heritage English: Language contact and vocalic variation in a Chicago community
Current Affiliation: Department of Linguistics, Northeastern Illinois University

Natalia Paterson
Dissertation: Interactions in Bilingual Speech Processing
Current Affiliation: Freelance interpretation, contractor for US Department of State, instructor for Brazil in Chicago

2010

Jennifer Alexander
Dissertation: The Theory of Adaptive Dispersion and Acoustic-phonetic Properties of Cross-language Lexical-tone Systems
Current Affiliation: Program Associate, ELP/TGS, Northwestern University

Melissa Baese-Berk
Dissertation: An examination of the relationship between speech perception and production. 
Current Affiliation: Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago

Rachel Baker
Dissertation: A The Acquisition of English Focus Marking by Non-native Speakers.
Current Affiliation: Chief Academic Officer at Astrid Education, London, UK

Matthew Berends (M.A.)
Dissertation: Only And Monotonicity In Conditionals
Current Affiliation: TBA

Kristin (Van Heukelem) Van Engen
Dissertation: Linguistic factors in speech-in-speech perception
Current Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Linguistics Program faculty, Washington University in St. Louis

Meredith Larson
Dissertation: The effects of syntactic complexity on structural priming.
Current Affiliation: Research Analyst at U.S. Department of Education

2009

Will Thompson
Dissertation: A game-theoretic model of grounding for referential communication tasks.
Current Affiliation: Senior Computational Research Consultant at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Robert Daland
Dissertation: Word segmentation, word recognition, and word learning: A computational model of first language acquisition.
Current Affiliation: Apple Siri team (Quality Engineer - Natural Language)

2008

Lewis Gebhardt
Dissertation: Numeral Classifiers and the Structure of DP
Current Affiliation: Adjunct Professor, Northeastern Illinois University

James Sneed German
Dissertation: Prosodic Strategies for Negotiating Reference in Discourse.
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, Laboratoire Parole et Langage, Aix-Marseille Université, Aix-en-Provence, France

2007

Carolyn Gottfurcht
Dissertation: Denominal Verb Formation in English.
Current Affiliation: Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Elisa Sneed German
Dissertation: The Role of the Input in the Acquisition of Genericity
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor in the English department of Université Paul Valéry in Montpellier, France

Kristen Syrett
Dissertation: Learning about the Structure of Scales: Adverbial Modification and the Acquisition of the Semantics of Gradable Adjectives.
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, Rutgers University

Joshua Viau
Dissertation: Possession and Spatial Motion in the Acquisition of Ditransitives.
Current Affiliation: English Teacher, Boyd Anderson High School, Hollywood, FL.

2006

Jessica Peterson Hicks
Dissertation: The Impact of Function Words on the Processing and Acquisition of Syntax.
Current Affiliation: UX Researcher at Instagram and User Experience Researcher at Facebook.
jjpete@hotmail.com

Ann Bunger
Dissertation: How We Learn to Talk About Events: Linguistic and Conceptual Constraints on Verb Learning.
Current Affiliation: Lecturer, Department of Linguistics, Indiana University
annbunger@gmail.com

Erin M. Leddon
Dissertation: Reconstruction Effects in Child Language.
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, Northwestern University

Yongeun Lee
Dissertation: Sub-syllabic Constituency in Korean and English.
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Chung-Ang University, Korea.
yongeun.lee@gmail.com

John Evar Strid
Dissertation: The Effect of Phonological Structure on Visual Word Access in Bilinguals and Monolinguals.
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor in the Department of Literacy and Elementary Education, Northern Illinois University.
jstrid@niu.edu

2005

Stephen Fix
Dissertation: Agrammatic aphasia as a Late Insertion disorder.
Current Affiliation: Assistant Professor and Department Chair, Cannabis Studies at Oakton Community College.

Tessa Bent
Dissertation: Perception and production of non-native prosodic categories.
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University.
tbent@indiana.edu

Ralph Rose
Dissertation: The Relative Contribution of Syntactic and Semantic Prominence to the Salience of Discourse Entities.
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, Center for English Language Education in Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
rose@waseda.jp

2004

Catherine Anderson
Dissertation: The Structure and Real-Time Comprehension of Quantifier Scope Ambiguity.
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics & Languages, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
canders@mcmaster.ca

Julia Moore
Dissertation: Articles and Proper Names in L2 English.
Current Affiliation: Director, English Language Programs, Northwestern University.
jmm@northwestern.edu

2003

Deborah Engle
MA Thesis: Influence of Russian L1 Palatalization Rules on Three Consonants in Azeri L2.
dgsoundings@aol.com

Jeanette Ortiz (M.A.)
MA Thesis: Effects of nuclear stress and clear speech on the durations of voiceless stops /k/ and /t/.
Current Affiliation: Director of Undergraduate Programs and Advising, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University

2002

Lynn Whitcomb
Dissertation: Investigating Arabic Diglossia in Foreign Language Instructor Practice and in Native Speaker Behavior.
Current Affiliation: Lecturer at Baylor University, Waco, TX.

2001

Colleen Wapole
Dissertation: The Relationship of Phonological Awareness to Second Language Reading.
Current Affiliation: Program Attorney at Guardian ad Litem Program, 13th Circuit, Tampa, FL.

Saundra Wright
Dissertation: Internally Caused and Externally Caused Change of State Verbs.
Current Affiliation: Professor of Linguistics and Director of the ESL Resource Center, Department of English, California State University, Chico, CA.

2000

Deborah Berkley
Dissertation: Gradient OCP Effects.
Current Affiliation: Retired.

Michele Feist
Dissertation: On In and On: An Investigation into the Linguistic Encoding of Spatial Scenes.
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
feist@louisiana.edu

Jennifer Hay
Dissertation: Causes and Consequences of Word Structure.
Current Affiliation: Professor, School of Social and Political Sciences; Linguistics; University of Canterbury, NZ.
Director, New Zealand Institute on Language Brain and Behaviour. 

William Stone
Dissertation: Black English: Language or Dialect?
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, Linguistics Program, Northeastern Illinois University.

1999

Larin Adams
Dissertation: Complex Events and the Semantics of -ing Sentential Complements.
Current Affiliation: Senior Software Developer at City Electric Supply.

Linda DiDesidero
Dissertation: Psych Verbs: Acquisition, Lexical Semantics, and Event Structure.
Current Affiliation: Professional Communication: World Bank; Univ of MD, Global; German Development Institute.

Karen Duchaj
Dissertation: Individual Differences in Humor Appreciation: The Role of Semantic Scripts.
Current Affiliation: Instructor, Linguistics Program, Northeastern Illinois University.
K-Duchaj@neiu.edu

1998

Rami Nair
Dissertation: Syllables and Word-edges.
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor of Instruction, Department of Asian Languages & Cultures, Northwestern University

Maria Pilar Ron
Dissertation: The Position of the Subject and Clausal Structure: Evidence from Dialectal Variation.

Laurel Stvan
Dissertation: The Semantics and Pragmatics of Bare Singular Noun Phrases.
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics and TESOL, University of Texas at Arlington.
stvan@uta.edu

1997

Zaida Cintron
Dissertation: Salsa y Control - Codeswitching in Nuyorican and Chicano Poetry: Markedness and Stylistics.
Current Affiliation: Instruction & Leadership Coach, Intl. Center for Leadership in Education, A Division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Victoria Muehleisen
Dissertation: Antonymy and Semantic Range in English.
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University, Tokyo.
vicky@waseda.jp

Grace Song
Dissertation: Cross-linguistic Differences in the Expression of Motion Events and Their Implications for Second Language Acquisition.
Current Affiliation: Director of Intensive English for Internationals and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Memphis.
gsong@memphis.edu

1996

Barbara Brooks
Dissertation: Language as a Symbol of Identity: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of the Value Ascribed to Literacy in Oklahoma Cherokee.
Current Affiliation: Owner, CamBrook Services. Bridgeton, MO.

Stefan Frisch
Dissertation: Similarity and Frequency in Phonology.
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Florida.
frisch@chuma1.cas.usf.edu

1995

Kathryn Harris
Dissertation: Perceived Stereotypes, Social Context and Second Language Acquisition: A Study of Mexican Immigrants Learning English as a Second Language in the United States.
Current Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Applied Linguistics, Portland State University.
dbkh@odin.cc.pdx.edu

Talke Macfarland
Dissertation: Cognate Objects and the Argument/Adjunct Distinction in English.
Current Affiliation: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University.
talke@earthlink.net

William Snyder
Dissertation: Cognitive Strategies in Second Language Lexical Processing: Evidence from English Speakers' Spelling Errors in Spanish.
Current Affiliation: Associate Director of the MA TEFL Program, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.
wsnyder@bilkent.edu.tr

1994

Ninah Beliavsky
Dissertation: The Evolution of Pronominal Reference in Children's Narratives: "Who Are 'They'?"
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, ESL Coordinator, Languages and Literatures, St. John's University, Queens, NY.
beliavsn@Stjohns.edu

Mari Broman Olsen
Dissertation: A Semantic and Pragmatic Model of Lexical and Grammatical Aspect. (Published by Garland, 1997)
Current Affiliation: Computational Linguist/Lexicographer, Microsoft

1993

Rosemary Buck
Dissertation: Politeness, Invitations, and Discourse Structure: A Sociolinguistic Approach to the Novels of E.M. Forster.
Current Affiliation: Professor of English, Medieval Studies, Eastern Illinois University.

Shahrzad Mahootian
Dissertation: A Null Theory of Codeswitching.
Current Affiliation: Professor Emerita, Department of Linguistics, Northeastern Illinois University.

1992

Sylvia Aruffo
Dissertation: An Ethnolinguistic Analysis of Certain Conflicting Assumptions in Negotiations for Technology Transfer Between German and the United States.
Current Affiliation: President, Communication Science, Inc., Buffalo Grove, IL

Betty Birner 
Dissertation: The Discourse Function of Inversion in English.
Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of English, Northern Illinois University at DeKalb.