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Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Kelly Elizabeth Wright

Assistant Professor

University of Wisconsin-Madison | Language Sciences

1168 Van Hise Hall, Madison, WI 53706

Kewright4@wisc.edu

 

EDUCATION

Doctorate in Linguistics | 2022

  • The University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, Michigan

Master of Arts in Linguistic Theory and Typology, summa cum laude | 2017

  • The University of Kentucky – Lexington, Kentucky                                                     

Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, summa cum laude | 2014

  • Maryville College –  Maryville, Tennessee                                                                                          

Associate of Science | 2012

  • Pellissippi State Community College –  Knoxville, Tennessee                                      

 

SPECIALIZATIONS

Experimental Sociolinguistics, Public Scholarship, Sociophonetics, Linguistic Discrimination, Racialization, Lexicography, Historical Sociolinguistics, Public Policy, Corpus Linguistics, Sociosemantic Change, Language Ideology

 

HONORS AND AWARDS

Linguistic Society of America

Pellissippi State Community College

American Dialect Society

  • Executive Committee nomination | 2022 | declined

University of Victoria | 2021-2022

  • Lansdowne Visiting Scholar | 2021-2022

University of Michigan | 2017-2022

  • Mellon Fellowship for Publicly Engaged Humanities | 2019

  • Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society | 2020

  • Rackham Scholar-Activist Award | 2019

  • Rackham Merit Fellowship | 2017- 2022

University of Kentucky | 2015-2017

  • Royster Excellence Award | 2015

  • UK Graduate Student Leadership Society | 2016

Lincoln Memorial University | 2014

  • Outstanding Poster Award for 21st Annual Blue Ridge Undergraduate Research Conference | 2014

Maryville College | 2013- 2014

  • Center for Calling and Career Competitive Summer Internship Grant | 2013

  • Alpha Sigma Lambda National Honors Society for Adults Continuing Higher Education | 2014

  • Sigma Tau Delta International English Honors Society | 2014

  • Ragsdale Study Abroad Scholarship for Ghana Study and Service program | 2013

  • Phi Theta Kappa Merit Scholarship | 2013

 

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Publications in Progress

  • Namboodiripad, S., Kutlu, E., Babel, A., Babel, M., Baese-Berk, M., Bassuk, P. B., … Wright, K. E. (2023, December 22). Essentialist characterizations of language are an obstacle to accuracy, progress, and justice in science. | Preprint available: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/jn3ct

  • Wright, K. “Ethical Expert Practice: Engaging with Everyday Linguistic Harms” | Submitted for The Routledge Handbook of Ethics in Forensic Linguistics | eds. Nick & Blewitt | To appear 2025

  • Wright, K. “The Metalinguistic Method of Sociolinguistic Interview” | In prep for Language in Society | To appear 2026

  • Wright, K. “Perceiving Black Professional Speech” | In prep for Journal of Phonetics | To appear 2026

  • Cambridge UP Languages in the USA | Co-editing with Jessica Grieser | To appear 2027

Dictionary Publications

  • Hughes, B., Calhoun, K., Fawcett, A., Wright, K.E., Zimmer, B.G., E. Brewser, C. Carson, J. McLean, & L. Zhang (2024) “Among the New Words” American Speech 99 (1): 78-90

  • Wright, K.E., B.G. Zimmer, E. Brewster, C. Carson, B. Hughes, J. McLean, & L. Zhang (2023) “Among the New Words” American Speech 98(4): 453-470

  • Wright, K.E., B.G. Zimmer, C. Carson, B. Hughes, J. McLean, & L. Zhang (2023) “Among the New Words” American Speech 98(3): 296-317

  • Zimmer, B.G., K.E. Wright, B. Hughes, L. Zhang, J. McLean, & C. Carson (2023) “Among the New Words” American Speech 98(1): 104-119

  • Zimmer, B.G., K.E. Wright, B. Hughes, & C. Carson (2022) “Among the New Words” American Speech 97(3): 412-428

  • Zimmer, B.G., K.E. Wright, B. Hughes, & C. Carson (2022) “Among the New Words” American Speech (2022) 97(2): 197-214

  • Hughes, B., B.G. Zimmer, K.E. Wright, & C. Carson (2022) “Among the New Words” American Speech (2022) 97(1): 69-90

  • Zimmer, B.G., K.E. Wright, & C. Carson (2021) “Among the New Words” American Speech (2021) 96(3): 371-385

  • Zimmer, B.G., K.E. Wright, & C. Carson (2021) “Among the New Words” American Speech (2021) 96(2): 217-234

  • Zimmer, B.G., K.E. Wright, & C. Carson (2021) “Among the New Words” American Speech (2021) 96(1): 105-123

Public Scholarship

Book Reviews

  • Wright, K. (2015) “Review of Cacchiani, Mazzi, Bondi Discourse In and Through the Media: Recontextualizing and Reconceptualizing Expert Discourse” LinguistList

 

TEACHING

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Instructor of record | Fall 2024

  • Linguistics 690: Capstone – Metalinguistics

Truman State University

Instructor of record | Ofstad Visiting Scholar 2024

  • Linguistics 502 / English 692: Things You Can’t Say

University of Michigan

Instructor of record | Fall 2018-Winter 2020

  • Linguistics 192: Things You Can’t Say

  • English 125: Writing and Academic Inquiry 2018-2019 academic year

Graduate Student Instructor | Winter 2020

  • Linguistics 370: Language and Discrimination

University of Kentucky                                                                                                                             

Instructor of record | Spring 2016- Spring 2017

  • Linguistics 211

  • Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies 110 and 111                                         

Teaching Assistant | Fall 2015-Spring 2016

  • Robert E. Hemenway Writing Center Professional Consultant

  • International Conversation Hour Moderator

 

UNIVERSITY POSITIONS

University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • Assistant Professor | Language Sciences | 2024-Present

Virginia Polytechnic University

  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow | Language Sciences | 2022-2024

  • Editorial Consultant | Just a Minute or Two with the English Department | 2022-2024

University of Michigan | 2020-2021

University of South Carolina—Columbia | Summer 2014

  • Internship in Lexicography, Dictionary Studies, and Oral History with Michael Montgomery

Pellissippi State Community College | Fall 2010-Summer 2015

  • Academic Advisor | Fall 2011 – Summer 2015

  • Student Success Mentor | Fall 2010-Spring 2013

                                                                                                

MEDIA APPEARANCES

Press

Interviews and Podcasts

 

INVITED TALKS

 

WORKSHOPS

  • Linguistic Justice & Public Health | 3rd Annual Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging Symposium | Centers for Disease Control & Prevention | 08 February 2024

  • Pushing against essentialist characterizations of language in Linguistics: Setting priorities in research, teaching, and advocacy | ROLE Collective Panel | Linguistic Society of American Annual Meeting | New York City | 05 January 2024

  • Quantitative Linguistic Justice | Computational Social Science Colloquium Series | University of California, San Diego | 09 May 2023

  • Art for Learning’s Sake: VTDITC’s Experiential Learning Model | Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy | 16 February 2023 | with collaborators Craig Arthur, Freddy Paige, Dakotah “KoDa” Hamilton, & Zaire Riddick

  • Linguistic Variation, Social Identity, and Stereotype in the Foreign Language Classroom | Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants Mid-Year Conference | Washington, DC | 13 November 2022

  • Experimental Sociolinguistic Research Paradigms for RAs | UC San Diego LAD Lab: Science in Action Series | 10 July 2020

  • Public Scholarship at the Graduate Level | Round Table Workshop | Committee for Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics | Linguistics Society of America Annual Meeting | 2020

  • Dialect Discrimination in the Workplace | UM Opportunity Hub’s Celebrate Campaign | March 10th 2019

  • A Historical Sociolinguist’s Digital Tools Starter Kit | NARNiHS | LSA Summer Institute | July 21st-23rd 2017

  • Developing a Thesis Research Topic | Sasha Johnson Coleman’s Communications Research Methods | Norfolk State University | February 6th 2017

  • Learning Phonology through the World’s Animal Sounds | Kentucky Educational Linguistics Outreach | LingoFest | 2015

 

GUEST LECTURES

  • Linguistic Profiling & African American Language | Patricia Cukor-Avila’s African American English Course | University of North Texas | 15 November 2023

  • Bias in Linguistic Datasets | Walt Wolfram’s Applied Sociolinguistics Course | North Carolina State University | 02 November 2023

  • African American Sociolinguistic Labor | Jill Hallett’s Language & Discrimination Course | University of Illinois, Chicago | 04 April 2023

  • Writing Styles as a Social Scientist | Annalise Wolf’s Writing for Social Sciences Course | City College of New York | 18 October 2022

  • Race-based Linguistic Discrimination | Izabelle Grenon’s Intermediate English Course | The University of Tokyo | 27 June 2022

  • Language and Race | Samantha Litty’s Intro to Linguistic Anthropology | European University | 14 January 2021

  • Mini lecture on Slurs and Ideological Change | Rob Podesva’s Language, Gender, and Sexuality | Stanford University | Fall 2020

  • Linguistic Discrimination: A General Overview | Nicholas Henricksen’s Spanish 487 | 14 May 2020

  • Slurs | Savithry Namboodiripad’s Language and Discrimination | 2 April 2020

  • Linguistic Discrimination in Media and Sport | Mary-Caitlyn Valentinsson’s Gender, Race, and Class | Appalachian State | 26 March 2020

  • Measuring Change in Real and Apparent Time | Ariana Bancu’s Sociolinguistics | Northeastern University | 22 October 2019

  • Linguistic Profiling in the Housing Market | Savithry Namboodiripad’s Language and Discrimination | 11 April 2019

  • Linguistic Discrimination | Israel Sanz-Sanchez’s ESP 318 | West Chester University | 5 March 2019

  • Long-term Benefits of the Undergraduate Thesis Process | Sasha Johnson Coleman’s English Thesis Capstone | Norfolk State University | 27 September 2016

  • Ghanaian Independence | Allison Stein’s Modern World History | Pellissippi State Community College | Fall 2014

 

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

  • Applying Reciprocity and Historical Sociolinguistics | North American Research Network in Historical Sociolinguistics Research Incubator | 27 April 2024

  • The Verticalization of African American Sociolinguistic Labor | North American Research Network in Historical Sociolinguistics Annual Meeting | 05 January 2024

  • Try to Make Language Without a Body. I’ll Wait. | Visibilizing raciolinguistic ideologies across cultures, languages, and systems | University of California, Berkeley | 06 April 2023

  • Language & Embodiment: Prioritizing the Language User | 90th Southeastern Conference on Linguistics | 11 March 2023 | University of Mississippi, Oxford

  • Linguistic Inequities: An Audit Study of Three American Dialects in the Housing Market | Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting | 2021

  • Actors and Events: Racialized Semantic Intensity Over Time | NARNiHS @ the KFLC | 17 April 2020

  • Inclusivity Pressures | Black Becoming Panel | Linguistics Society of America Annual Meeting | 2020

  • Measuring Implicit Biases through the Statistical Properties of Language | PechaKucha | HiSoN | July 2019

  • Augmented Reality App for Detroit Art Institute | Mellon Publicly Engaged Humanities Fellowship | Ann Arbor Public Library | May 2019

  • Lexical Racialization in Machine Learning Poster | NWAV 47 New York University | October 2018

  • Covert Segregation: Dialect Discrimination in the Housing Market | Chicago Linguistics Society | April 2018

  • Race, Class, and Structural Critique | Panel Discussion | National Council for Black Studies | March 2018

  • The Five-Minute Linguist Competition | Linguistics Society of America Annual Meeting | 2018

  • A Replication of Purnell et al. (1999), with co-author Kevin McGowan | Poster | LSA Summer Institute | 2017

  • The Reflection and Reification of Racialized Language in Popular Media | Purdue Language and Cultures Conference | March 2017

  • Adjusting the Cost-Benefit Model of Language Planning by Incorporating Network Analysis in the Ghanaian Context | Poster | Purdue Language and Cultures Conference | March 2017

  • UK English Department Casual Colloquium | University of Kentucky | February 2017

  • Adjusting the Cost-Benefit Model of Language Planning by Incorporating Network Analysis in the Ghanaian Context | 2nd International Conference on English Language, Literature, Teaching and Translation Studies | September 30th – October 1st 2016

  • UK Linguistics Incubator for Collaborative Digital Research | University of Kentucky | September 2016

  • The Serena Williams Opprobrious Language Experiment | Central Kentucky Linguistics Conference | April 2016

  • UK English Department Casual Colloquium | University of Kentucky | April 2016

  • “No Ordinary Wind” | Lincoln Memorial University Blue Ridge Undergraduate Research Conference | 2014

  • The Feminine Underground | Lee University Literary Symposium | 2013

 

SERVICE TO THE DISCIPLINE

  • Editor of American Speech’s Among the New Words quarterly dictionary | 2020 – present | Lead Editor 2024 -

  • National Science Foundation | Panelist | 2023 & 2024

  • Steering Group of the North American Research Network in Historical Sociolinguistics | 2017 – Present | Convening Group 2024 - 2026

  • The American Dialect Society’s New Words Committee’s Data Czar | 2020 - present

  • Reframing Our Language Experience (ROLE) Collective | Founding Member | 2022 - present

  • Oxford English Dictionary Researchers Advisory Group | 2020 - present

  • Editor’s Assistant for Language: A Journal of the Linguistics Society of America | 2019 - 2022

  • Founding Member of the Linguistic Society of America Social Media Committee | 2021

  • Linguistic Society of America Media Liaison | 2020 - present

  • Project South Civil Rights Oral History Documentation Initiative transcriptionist | 2014

 

UNIVERSITY SERVICE

Virginia Polytechnic University

  • VT Postdoctoral Association | Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Chair | 2023 - 2024

  • VTDITC “Digging in the Crates” Hip Hop Studies Leadership Board | 2022 - present

  • Language Sciences Committee | 2022-2023 | Department of English

University of Michigan

  • Founding Member of Language Matters, the University of Michigan Linguistic Diversity and Outreach Initiative

  • Admissions Committee | 2020-2021| University of Michigan LSA Department of Linguistics

  • Co-Chair of Colloquium Committee | 2018-2020 | University of Michigan LSA Department of Linguistics

  • Undergraduate Committee | 2017-2018 | University of Michigan LSA Department of Linguistics

University of Kentucky                                                                                                                         

  • Linguistics Club President

  • Sociolinguistics Reading Group topic curator and session leader

 

OTHER EDUCATION

  • Proposal Development Institute | Spring 2023 | Virginia Tech University

  • Future Faculty Development Program | 3-6 October 2021 | Virginia Tech University

  • Historical Sociolinguistics Network (HiSoN) Summer School | 14-21 July 2019 | University of Adger’s Metochi Study Center, Lesbos Greece

  • Mellon Fellowship for Publicly Engaged Humanities | Spring 2019 | University of Michigan

  • LSA Summer Institute | 2017 | University of Kentucky

  • R Minicourse with Bodo Winter | 2016 | LSA Annual Meeting

  • Intermediate Turkish proficiency certification from the Knoxville Turkish Cultural Center | 2013

 

 

Lists of references, declined opportunities, and sample work product available upon request.

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