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Education

2006 - 2011
Ph.D. Linguistics
University of Michigan
Dissertation title: The Role of Socioindexical Expectation in Speech Perception
Steven P. Abney & Patrice Speeter Beddor, co-chairs
Julie Boland, Robin Queen, & Benjamin Munson, readers
1996
B.A. Linguistics
University of Michigan
2007
Summer Institute of the Linguistic Society of America
Stanford University
2006
JHU Summer School on Human Language Technology
Johns Hopkins University

Employment

2021 -
Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Kentucky
2015 - 2021
Assistant Professor, Program in Linguistics, Department of English, University of Kentucky
2013 - 2015
Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Linguistics, Stanford University
Meghan Sumner (PI)
2011 - 2013
Lecturer, Department of Linguistics, Rice University

Professional Experience

2019
Invited Faculty, “Speech Perception”, Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute, University of California, Davis
2017
Invited Faculty, “Doing phonetics research” and “Eye tracking for linguistics research” Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute, University of Kentucky
2013
Invited Faculty, “Introduction to Praat” Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute, University of Michigan
2007 - 2010
Journal Assistant & Student Board Member, Language Learning Journal, Blackwell Publishing
2009 - 2010
Research Assistant, Professor Pam Beddor, Michigan Phonetics & Phonology Laboratory
2007 - 2008
Research Assistant, Professors Pam Beddor & A. Coetzee, Michigan Phonetics & Phonology Laboratory
1997 - 2007
Programmer &, System administrator, Manager of Web and Database production services, University of Michigan

Publications & Presentations

Publications ( bibtex )

(in prep)
Laycock, K. \& McGowan, K.B. Removing the disguise: the matched guise technique and listener awareness. Journal of Sociolinguistics.
(in press)
McGowan, K.B. Speech Perception. In Sociophonetics: Implications for Phonetics and Phonology, ed. by Lauren Hall-Lew and Jennifer Nycz. Oxford University Press
(2022)
Barrett, R., Cramer, J., & McGowan, K. B. English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. Taylor & Francis.
(2021)
Babel, A.M., McGowan, K.B., & Enríquez Duque, P. Niveles de percepción de las vocales en contacto: el caso de una variedad de español andino en Bolivia. Niveles de percepción de las vocales en contacto: el caso de una variedad de español andino en Bolivia, 119-136.
(2020)
Baese-Berk, M.M., McLaughlin, D., and McGowan, K.B. Perception of non-native speech. Language and Linguistics Compass
(2020)
Medeiros, D.J., Mains, P., and McGowan, K.B. Ceiling Effects on Weight in Heavy NP Shift.Linguistic Inquiry
(2020)
McGowan, K.B. & Babel, A.M. Perceiving isn’t believing: Divergence in levels of sociolinguistic awareness Language in Society 49(1)
(2019)
McGowan, K.B., Johnson, M.T., Combs, A., and Soleymanpoor, M. Acoustic, non-invasive measurement of velopharyngeal aperture using a high frequency tone, Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Sydney, Australia
2018
Beddor, P.S., Coetzee, A., Styler, W., McGowan, K.B., & Boland, J.E. The time course of individuals’ perception and production of coarticulatory information, and its implications for sound change Language 94(4) 931–968
2016
McGowan, K.B. “Sounding Chinese and Listening Chinese: Awareness and Knowledge in the Laboratory” In Awareness and Control in Sociolinguistics Research, ed. by A.M. Babel. Cambridge University Press.
2015
McGowan, K.B. “Social Expectation Improves Speech Perception in Noise” Language and Speech. doi:10.1177/0023830914565191
2014
Sumner, M., Kim, S. K., King, E., and McGowan, K.B. “The socially-weighted encoding of spoken words: A dual-route approach to speech perception” Frontiers in Psychology. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.01015
2013
P.S. Beddor, K.B. McGowan, J.E. Boland, A.W. Coetzee and A. Brasher “The Perceptual Time Course of Coarticulation” — Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 133 (2013) : 2350-2366. doi:10.1121/1.3249491
2012
McGowan, K.B. “Gradient Lexical Reflexes of the Syllable Contact Law” Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society 45, Volume I, R. Bochnak, N. Nicola, P. Klecha, J. Urban, A. Lemieux and C. Weaver (Eds.), p. 445-454. Chicago Linguistics Society: Chicago.

Invited Talks & Colloquia

2019
University of Tennessee, Knoxville — Social expectation and speech perception: mismatch and alignment
2016
University of Michigan — “Subcategorical mismatches can be mismatches of phonetic, phonological, lexical, and social context”
2016
North Carolina State University — “Socially informed speech perception: context, congruency, and complications”
2016
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York — “Social knowledge and speech perception: mismatch and alignment”
2014
UC Berkeley, Phorum — “Perceiving isn't believing: listeners' expectation and awareness of phonetically-cued social information” with A.M. Babel
2012
Rice University — “Claims about processing require online tasks: disjunction of AXB and interview results in a Bolivian crossroads”
2012
University of Texas, Austin — “Social expectation and theories of speech perception” — Invited colloquium
2011
Rice University — “The role of socioindexical expectation in speech perception.”
2010
University of Michigan — “The perceptual time course of coarticulation” with P.S. Beddor
2009
University of Michigan — “Aerodynamic Modeling of Coarticulation Improves Concatenative Synthesis”

Presentations

2015
McGowan, K.B. and Sumner, M. A phonetic explanation of pronunciation variant effects. 89th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
2015
Sumner, M., McGowan, K.B., D'Onofrio, A., and Pratt, T. The contribution of form and meaning to the processing of careful and casual speech. 89th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
2015
Mains, P., McGowan, K.B., and Medeiros, D. Gradient acceptability by length in heavy NP shift. 89th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
2015
Moores, N.P., McGowan, K.B., Sumner, M. and Frank, MC. Children use phonetically-cued talker information to infer speaker meaning. Poster, 89th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
2014
Moores, N.P., McGowan, K.B., Sumner, M., and Frank, M.C. Children use phonetically-cued talker information to disambiguate similar objects. The 55th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomics Society, Long Beach, CA
2014
McGowan, K.B. Sumner, M., D'Onofrio, A., and Pratt, T. The contribution of form and meaning to the processing of careful and casual speech. 27th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. Columbus, OH
2014
Sumner, M., Calder, J., D'Onofrio, A., McGowan, K.B., and Pratt, T. Top-down vs. bottom-up processing depends on the acoustic composition of an utterance. 88th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
2013
Sumner, M.; D'Onofrio, A.; McGowan, K.; Pratt, T.; and Calder, J. Differences in the recognition of careful and casual speech. Poster, 166th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
2013
McGowan, K.B. and Babel, A.M. Perception of Spanish in Contact: Bolivian listeners' expectation and awareness of socioindexical variation. Workshop on Sound Change Actuation, University of Chicago
2013
McGowan, K.B. Sounding Chinese and Listening Chinese: Imitation, Perception, and Awareness of Non-Native Phonology. Part of panel, Awareness \& control in sociolinguistic research. 87th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
2012
Babel, A.M. and McGowan, K.B. Social Categorization and Levels of Awareness: A Cross-Disciplinary Study. Part of panel, Voices in Movement: Phonetic Border Crossings. American Anthropological Association annual meeting.
2012
McGowan, K.B. The influence of socioindexical expectations on speech perception in noise. 86th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
2011
McGowan, K.B. The influence of socioindexical expectations on speech perception in noise. Poster, 162nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
2011
McGowan, K.B. and Medeiros, D. J. Tongues don't twist —mental representations do. 85th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
2011
McGowan, K.B. Are you experienced? Socio-indexical knowledge and naive listeners. Poster, 85th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
2010
McGowan, K.B. Examining Listeners' Use of Sociolinguistic Information During Early Phonetic Judgments: Evidence from eye-tracking. New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV 39)
2010
McGowan, K.B. Listener Expectations and the Processing of Foreign-Accented Speech. Mid-Continental Workshop on Phonology (MCWOP 16)
2010
Beddor, P.S., McGowan, K.B., Boland, J., and Coetzee, A. The Perceptual Time Course of Coarticulation. Poster, Laboratory Phonology (LabPhon 12)
2010
McGowan, K.B. Aerodynamic Modeling of Coarticulation for Unit Selection Synthesis. Poster, 84th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
2009
Beddor, P.S., McGowan, K.B., Boland, J., and Coetzee, A. The Perceptual Time Course of Coarticulatory Nasalization. Poster, 158th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
2009
McGowan, K.B. Aerodynamic Modeling for Concatenative Speech Synthesis. Poster, 158th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
2008
McGowan, K.B. Pointwise Mutual Information and the Syllable Contact Law. Mid-Continental Workshop on Phonology (MCWOP 14)
2008
Coetzee, A. and McGowan, K.B. Allophonic cues to syllabification. CUNY Conference On The Syllable
1994
Bailey, R.W. and Kevin B. McGowan The Michigan Academy — “English in Michigan: A Century of Scholarship” with Richard W. Bailey

Teaching

University of Kentucky

Phonetics

Linguistics 500

Fall 2015—2017
Computational Linguistics

Linguistics 511

Fall 2017
Language in U.S. Society

Linguistics 331

Spring 2016—2017
Phonology

Linguistics 515

Spring 2017
Introduction to R

Arts & Sciences 500

Spring 2016—2017
Sociophonetics

Linguistics 617

Spring 2016
Introduction to Linguistics

Linguistics 221

Fall 2015—2016

Linguistic Society of America

Doing Phonetics Research

with Melissa Baese-Berk, Melinda Fricke, & Natasha Warner
LSA Linguistic Institute
Summer 2017, Lexington, KY
Eyetracking for linguistic research

LSA Institute
Summer 2017, Lexington, KY
Praat Scripting

LSA Annual Meeting Pre-Workshops
January 2015, Portland, OR

LSA Institute
Summer 2013, Ann Arbor, MI

Rice University

Computational Linguistics

Linguistics 409
Rice University, Department of Linguistics
Spring 2013
Introduction to Phonology

Linguistics 311/511 & Anthropology 323/523
Rice University, Department of Linguistics
Spring 2012 & Spring 2013
Advanced Phonology

Linguistics 427
Rice University, Department of Linguistics
Fall 2012
Hearing & Speech Perception, Graduate Seminar

Linguistics 555
Rice University, Department of Linguistics
Spring 2012
Introduction to the Scientific Study of Language

Linguistics/Anthropology 200
Rice University, Department of Linguistics
Fall 2011
Introduction to Phonetics

Linguistics/Anthropology 301/501
Rice University, Department of Linguistics
Fall 2011 & 2012

University of Michigan

Language & the Human Mind

Linguistics 209/Pyschology 242
Graduate Student Instructor for Professor Sam Epstein
University of Michigan, Department of Linguistics
Fall 2009
College Writing

English 125
University of Michigan, Department of English Language & Literature
Fall 2008
Introduction to Language

Linguistics 111
University of Michigan, Department of Linguistics
Spring 2008
Javascript Programming

Introductory JavaScript Programming Workshop
University of Michigan, School of Information
Winter 2006, Winter 2007
UNIX, perl programming, SQL, and various computing skills workshops

University of Michigan, Information Technology Division
1997 - 1999

Fellowships and Awards

March 2016
Confucius Institute Faculty China Curriculum Development Grant
2010 - 2011
Horace H. Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan
2010
Humanities Candidacy Fellowship, University of Michigan
2008
National Science Foundation, Honorable Mention, Graduate Research Fellowship
2008
Pre-Candidate Research Grant, Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant, Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan
2007
Linguistic Society of America, LSA Linguistic Institute Fellowship, LSA Summer Institute, Stanford University
2006
NAACL Summer School, North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics
2005 - 2006
Non-Traditional Fellowship, Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan

Student Research Supervision

Penelope Howe
Investigation of cues to fricative voicing in dialects of Malagasy. Rice University. Qualifying Paper in progress, chair
Hussein Hizazi
Formant Analysis of Jordanian Arabic Vowels: Emphasis Effect on F2 in Jordanian Arabic. Rice University. Qualifying Paper in progress, chair
John Galindo
A psychoacoustic study of the influence of L1 lexical tone and pitch perception. Rice University. Qualifying Paper in progress, chair
Ling Ma
Native Mandarin perception of English word boundary consonant overlap. Qualifying Paper in progress, chair
Ru-ping Ruby Tso
Chinese Characters and Speech Recognition. Rice University. Qualifying Paper in progress, reader
Obi Nwabueze
The use of eye-tracking in speech perception research. Undergraduate Research
Sheri-Ann Peckham
Investigation of age-related perceptual plasticity using Jamaican Creole. Undergraduate Research

Service

2014 -
Peer Review, Lingua
2014 -
Association for Laboratory Phonology, Web Committee & @LabPhon Twitter maintainer
2012,2014
Conference abstract review, Speech Science and Technology 2012, Sydney, Australia
2012 -
Peer Review, Journal of Language & Speech
2011 -
Peer Review, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
2009
Conference abstract review, Michigan Linguistics Society
2007
Conference abstract review, Experimental Approaches to Optimality Theory (ExpOT)

Departmental Service & Participation

2011 - 2013
Organizer, Statistics for Linguistics Reading Group, Rice University
2011 - 2013
Faculty Associate, Hanszen College, Rice University
2010 - 2011
Linguistics Executive Committee, University of Michigan
2007 - 2009
Co-chair of Michigan Linguistics Colloquium Committee
2006 - 2011
Active partipant and presenter at:
  • Phonetics/Phonology Discussion Group (Phondi)
  • Computational Linguistics Lab Group
  • Psycholinguistics Lab Group

Selected Software Projects

Technologies

  • Eyelink II head-mounted eye tracker,EG2-PCX Electroglottograph, EVA 2 pneumotachograph, Zonare Ultrasound, Praat, Wavesurfer, OpenSesame, sox, etc.
  • Python, Perl, C, Bourne shell, JavaScript, awk, tcl, SQL, PL/SQL
  • RDBMS systems (Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL), UNIX administration & programming (Linux, OpenBSD, MacOS, Solaris, etc.), HTML, XML, CSS, LaTeX

Professional affiliations

2010 -
Association for Laboratory Phonology
2009 -
Acoustical Society of America
2006 -
Linguistic Society of America
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