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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

 

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Publications in Progress

  • Namboodiripad, S., Kutlu, E., Babel, A., Babel, M., Baese-Berk, M., Bassuk, P. B., … Wright, K. E. (2025). Essentialist characterizations of language are an obstacle to accuracy, progress, and justice in science. | Cognition | Preprint available: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/jn3ct

  • Wright, K. “Ethical Expert Practice: Engaging with Everyday Linguistic Harms” | The Routledge Handbook of Forensic Linguistics Ethics | eds. I. M. Nick and Kirsty E. 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 2027

  • Wright, K. “Racialized Linguistic Styles” | In prep for Journal of Black Language and Culture | To appear 2027

  • Cambridge UP Languages in the USA | Co-editing with Jessica Grieser | To appear 2029

Dictionary Publications

  • Wright, K.E., E. Brewster, C. Carson, B. Hughes, J. McLean, L. Zhang, B. Zimmer (2025) “Among the New Words” American Speech, 100 (2): 259–277

  • Wright, K.E., E. Brewster, C. Carson, B. Hughes, J. McLean, L. Zhang, & B. Zimmer (2024) “Among the New Words” American Speech, 99 (4): 468-481

  • Wright, K.E., E. Brewster, C. Carson, B. Hughes, J. McLean, L. Zhang, & B. Zimmer (2024) “Among the New Words” American Speech. 99 (3): 364-382

  • Hughes, B., Calhoun, K., Fawcett, A., Wright, K.E., Zimmer, B.G., E. Brewster, 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. (2025) “Review of Talking Faculty” Calhoun et al.

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

 

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

 

TEACHING

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Instructor of record | Fall 2025

  • Linguistics 977: Stylistic Variation

Instructor of record | Spring 2025

  • Linguistics 373: Sociophonetics

  • Linguistics 213: (Honor’s only) Things You Can’t Say

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

  • Supporting the Linguist as Expert Witness: Case Studies Involving Black Speech | Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting | January 2025

  • Applying Reciprocity in 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

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

  • Steering Group of the North American Research Network in Historical Sociolinguistics | 2017 – Present | Convening Group 2024 – 2026 | Convenor 2025

  • Organized the NARNiHS Research Incubator | 25-27 April, 2025

  • Consultant | Center for Advancing Linguistic Science | Rice University | March 2025

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

  • American Speech’s Editorial Advisory Committee | 2025 - present

  • National Science Foundation | Panelist | 2023 & 2024

  • Journal of Sociolinguistics | Reviewer | 2025

  • Language | Reviewer | 2024

  • Language, Identity, & Education | Reviewer | 2024

  • American Speech | Reviewer | 2023 - 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

  • 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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