I am a PhD student in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh.  My dissertation work provides an acoustic analysis of the vowel systems of African Americans in Pittsburgh, PA and explores connections between racial identity and local identity in the city.  

  My broad research interests are:

African American English

Sociophonetic Variation in AAE

Language and Identity

Language and Gender

Intraspeaker Variation / Style-Shifting

you can contact me at maest38@pitt.edu