Advising.knit

 
 
Advising is difficult and stressful, but fun! Here are the people I have advised/am advising:

PhD Chair/co-chair (at Michigan State University)

• Qian Luo. (2018). Consonantal Effects on F0 in Tonal Languages. [present: Lecturer, Queen Mary University of London; Co-advisor: Yen-Hwei Lin]
• Sayako Uehara. (2019). Word Segmentation for Japanese and English Speakers: Language-Independent and Language-Dependent Cues. [present: Lecturer (tenured) at Dokkyo University; Co-advisor: Yen-Hwei Lin]
• Drew Trotter. (2019). Testing phonological representations through behavioral and electrophysiological methods. [present: Data Reporting & Visualization Specialist, American Board of Emergency Medicine; Co-advisor: Alan Beretta]
• Kaylin Smith. (2020). Distinguishing different levels of representation in the acoustics: A case study in Scottish English epenthesis. [present: Data & Operations Research Scientist, Principal Financial Group; Co-advisor: Alan Beretta]
• Naiyan Du. (2023). Against strict correspondence between phonetic measurements and phonological representations. [present: Assistant Professor at Baiko Gakuin University; Co-advisor: Yen-Hwei Lin]
• Yunting Gu. (2025). Larger sonority difference, larger lag: gestural coordination in speech production.
• Yongqing Ye [PhD expected, Summer 2025]
• Anqi Shao [PhD expected, Spring 2029]

PhD Committee Member

• Michael Dow. (2014). Contrast and Markedness among Nasal(ized) Vowels: A phonetic-phonological study of French and Vimeu Picard. Indiana University. [present: Assistant Professor, University of Montreal]
• Timothy O’Neill. (2015). The Phonology of Betsimisaraka Malagasy. University of Delaware.
• Mingzhe Zheng. You have to learn to adapt: A sociolinguistic study of Chinese Americans in the “Asian City” of Southeast Michigan. committee member. PhD, 2017, Michigan State University. [present: Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley]
• Monica Nesbitt. (2019). The impact of internal social change on local phonology. Michigan State University. [present: Postdoctoral Fellow, Dartmouth College]
• Cara (Danny) Feldscher. (2019). Natural language addition via degrees, events, and focus. Michigan State University. [present: language researcher at Amazon]
• Xiaomei Wang. (2020). Local Identity and Language Attitude in Standardization: Evidence from Tianjin Chinese Tone Sandhi. Michigan State University. [present: faculty at Tianjin University]
• Mohammed Ruthan. (2020). Aspects of Jazani Arabic. Michigan State University. [present: Assistant Professor, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University]
• Chenchen Xu. (2020). The Phonology and Phonetics of Rugao Syllable Contraction: Vowel Selection and Deletion. Michigan State University.
• Ho-Hsin Huang. (2020). To Epenthesize or not? Segment Insertion in Mandarin Loanwords. Michigan State University. [present: Instructor of Chinese, Michigan State University]
• Yan Cong. (2021). Competition in Natural Language Meaning: The Case of Adjective Constructions in Chinese and Beyond. Michigan State University.
• Ye Ma. (2023). The Processing of Aspectual Verbs in Mandarin Chinese. Michigan State University
• Shannon Cousins. (2024). How to Begin? Toward a General Theory of Aspectual Verbs. Michigan State University
• Yaxuan Wang, MSU (PhD expected, Fall 2025)
• Adam Barnhardt, MSU (PhD expected, Fall 2026)
• Jess Shepherd, MSU (PhD expected, Fall 2028)
• Connor Bechler, MSU (PhD expected, Fall 2029)
• Yili (Ellie) Xia, MSU (PhD expected, Fall 2029)

Other PhD committees

• Mitch Klein [former PhD student at MSU; PhD Co-advisor with Brian Buccola] - Served 2019-2023.
• Chad Hall, Sociolinguistics [PhD expected, 2022] - Served 2017-2020.
• Xiayimaierdan Abudushalamu, Sociolinguistics [PhD expected, 2022] - Served 2017-2020.
• Rebecca Senn, Sociolinguistics [switched to MA] - Served 2016-2020.
• Alex Mason, Sociolinguistics [Did not finish] - Served 2016-2020.
  
• Komeil Kolahi Ahari, Syntax [PhD expected, 2023] - Served 2018-2020.
• Matt Savage, Sociolinguistics [PhD expected, 2023] - Served 2014-2020.
• Monica Obiri-Yeboah, Sociolinguistics [switched to MA] - Served 2019-2021.

Chair/co-chair MA Committee (at Michigan State University)

• Scott Nelson. (2019). The Generalizable Nature of Lexical Retuning. (chair) [present: Assistant Professor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne]
• Isaac Sarver. (2020). A Systematic Evaluation of Computational Models of Phonotactics. (chair) [present: NLP Data Scientist at Illumination Works]
• Rebecca Senn. (2020). (co-chair)
• Darby Grachek. (2021). Understanding Acceptability Judgements: Grammatical Knowledge vs. Lexical Search. (chair) [PhD student at the University of Southern California]
• Ben Airola. (2025). Moras Are Unnecessary for Stress and Other Weight-Related Phenomena. (chair)
  
• Nghi Lam, MSU [MA expected, Spring 2025]

MA Committee Member (at Michigan State University)

• Patricia Lawrence, MSU (MA, Fall 2015)
• Alex Mason, MSU (MA, Spring 2016)
• Alicia Parrish, MSU (MA, Spring 2017) [PhD, New York University]
• Adam Smolinski, MSU (MA, Spring 2019)
• Jack Rechsteiner, MSU (MA, Spring 2023)
• Hamlin Teng, MSU [MA expected, Spring 2026]

Undergraduate Student Theses (at Michigan State University)

• Kira A. Vander Molen. (2024). The Case of Nasalization: Phonetic and Phonological Processes in Michigan English. [co-advised with Silvina Bongiovanni]
• Cherilyn Wang. (2002). CV-timing alters regarding different vowel height – an articulatory study using corpus data.
• Sarah Knappenberger. (2022). Lexical Access and Production in Michigan English.
• Katelyn Weatherford. (2022). Acoustic C-center effects in Russian.
• Russell Marvin. (2021). The effect of speech rate on the voicing effect in English.
• Jillian Burger. (2021). Instructional Effects on Phonotactic Acceptability Judgement Testing.
• Michaela Smith. (2020). Perception of [æ] raising in pre-oral and pre-nasal settings in Michigan English speakers.
• Sean Connelly. (2020). Measuring Dentalization of Alveolar Stops in Native English Speakers of Lebanese-Arab Descent from Dearborn, Michigan.
• Megan Placko. (2020). Phonological Underspecification in Voicing Perception using a simple Oddball paradigm. [After graduating: Masters in Speech Pathology, University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne.]
• Kinsey Adair. (2020). Mathematizing Turkish Phonology.
• Bobby Felster. (2019). Ambisyllabic consonants in Michigan English.
  
• Claire Moen. (2018). The Yooper Accent: A Phonetic Study of the Upper Peninsula Dialect.
  
• Scott Nelson. (2017). Perceptual Retuning Targets Features. [After graduating: MA, MSU, and then PhD student, SUNY Stony Brook]
• Bethany Dickerson. (2017). Canadian Raising in Michigan English. [After graduating: MA, University of Massachusetts Amherst]
  
• Taylor Bronsink. (2017). Moral language as Reflected in Presidential State of the Union Speeches over the Course of American History.
  
• Emily Salzeid. (2017). Gestural Relations and Phonology.
  
• Stirling Witthoeft. (2016). Changes in Speech Rate due to Varying Simulated Acoustic Environments.
  
• Elliot Selkirk. (2016). Acoustic Correlates of Gesture Timing in English Syllables. [After grduating: MA/PhD student, University of Edinburgh]
• Lindsay Burger. (2016). The Relationship between Self-soothing Behaviors and Complex Language in Children.
  
• Katelyn Grizzle. (2016). Compliance and Beliefs of Hearing Protection in a Noisy Environment.
  
• Foster, Elaine. (2015). American attitudes toward American dialects.
  
• Hoffman, Jared. (2015). Syllable Compression: Revisited.
  
• Swisher, Kimberly. (2013). The perceptibility and comprehensibility of the Speech of Individuals with Downs Syndrome (DS).
  
• Adams, Latoya. (2013). Production and perception of homophonous words in English.
  
• Chabala, Dan. (2012). The effect of pitch on the production of vowel length.
  
• Koo, Boram. (2012). Review of palatalization: what it means to have secondary palatalization.
  
• Heffner, Chris. (2011). Languages with Opacity are Opaque. [present: Assistant Professor, University of Buffalo]
• Selbig, Shaina. (2011). Breathy voice: Using Praat scripting to determine the intensity difference of H1-H2.
  
• Briones, Juan. (2011). Perception of Phonemic and Allophonic Contrasts in Spanish.
  
• Soo-Rim, Hong. (2010). Effects of Korean Phonology on English when Koreans learn English.