Elizabeth A. Strand's Homepage

I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Linguistics here at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. It is my current mission in life to find out more about how our socially-mediated stereotypes about others (especially stereotypes about gender) affect the way we perceive speech. I believe that speech perception is not so much a modular process isolated from other cognitive processes, as has been proposed before (a la Jerry Fodor 1983, for example), but is rather a much more holistic process that draws from a wealth of higher-level social knowledge in ways that we are only just beginning to appreciate.

Research Interests

Phonetics and speech perception in general, sociophonetics
Audiovisual integration in speech perception -- the McGurk Effect! (Experience the McGurk Effect for yourself -- watch demo once, then close your eyes and listen -- or just read more about it)
The effect of gender stereotypes on low-level speech perception
Sociolinguistics and the perception/representation of sociolinguistically indexical information
Language & gender -- the Berkeley Women & Language Group (BWLG) maintains a nice listing of web resources for language & gender-related issues
LGBT speech -- see Gregory Ward's great bibliography of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and queer language-related work

Click here for the Acoustics of Speech Page ....

Publications

Johnson, Keith, Elizabeth A. Strand, & Mariapaola D'imperio. (1999). Auditory-visual integration of talker gender in vowel perception. Journal of Phonetics, 24(4): 359-384.

Strand, Elizabeth A. (1999). Uncovering the role of gender stereotypes in speech perception. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 18(1):86-99.

Strand, Elizabeth A. (1999). Gender perception influences speech processing. In Ursula Pasero & Friederike Braun (Eds.), Wahrnehmung und Herstellung von Geschlecht: Perceiving and Performing Gender pp.127-136. Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag GmbH.

Strand, Elizabeth A., Bettina Migge, Steve Hartman Keiser, & Frans Hinskens. (1998). "TR-/ae/" in the Midlands: A study of Tensing and Raising in Radio Speech in Columbus, Ohio. In Claude Paradis, Diane Vincent, Denise Deshaies, & Marty Laforest (Eds.), Papers in Sociolinguistics: NWAVE-26 a l'Universite Laval pp. 115-124.

Hartman Keiser, Steve, Frans Hinskens, Bettina Migge, & Elizabeth A. Strand. (1997). The Northern Cities Shift in the heartland? A study of radio speech in Columbus, Ohio. In Kim Ainsworth-Darnell & Mariapaola D'imperio (Eds.), Working Papers in Linguistics No. 50: Papers from the Linguistics Laboratory pp. 41-68. Columbus: The Ohio State University Dept. of Linguistics.

Strand, Elizabeth A. & Keith Johnson. (1996). Gradient and visual speaker normalization in the perception of fricatives. In Dafydd Gibbon (Ed.), Natural Language Processing and Speech Technology: Results of the 3rd KONVENS Conference, Bielefeld, October 1996 pp. 14-26. Berlin: Mouton.

Advisers

Keith Johnson is my primary adviser in the Department of Linguistics at OSU. He guides me in all matters of speech perception.

Send e-mail to Keith Johnson

Keith Johnson's Homepage

Norma Mendoza-Denton is in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She is my language & gender muse, and shares my interest in exposing the over-generalizing claims of sociobiology which have historically been the basis of much research in our field.

Send e-mail to Norma Mendoza-Denton

UA Anthropology Faculty Page

Mary Beckman is in the Department of Linguistics at OSU. She advises me in phonetics and speech perception, as well as sociophonetics.

Send e-mail to Mary Beckman

Mary Beckman's Homepage

Don Winford is also in the Department of Linguistics at OSU. He is a member of my dissertation committee, along with Keith and Mary, and gives me good advice in all areas of sociolinguistics.

Send e-mail to Don Winford

Don Winford's Homepage

Personal Interests

Bicycling, camping, running -- all things outdoors-related (check out Brone's Bike Shop in my hometown of Fountain City, Wisconsin, which, by the way, is also the hometown of linguist Martin Joos, the first researcher to use the acoustic spectrograph in the study of laboratory acoustic phonetics -- GO MARTIN! GO FOUNTAIN CITY!!!)
Cooking, wine -- all things food-related (a visit to Gentile's-The Wine Sellers, my favorite wine store in Columbus, is always a celebration!)
Digging around in the dirt, planting, and harvesting produce -- all things gardening-related
Piano, flute, violin, Appalachian mountain dulcimer -- all things music-related
Wisconsin cheese -- just can't get enough of my home state's food of the gods! We also do a fine job with beer and mustard, as is featured at the Monarch Tavern and Preservation Hall, the unofficial cultural center of beautiful Fountain City, population 985.
I also really enjoy volunteering at the Thurber House here in Columbus, which was the home of humorist and playwright James Thurber during his college years at OSU and has been fabulously restored to a circa-1910's fashion. The Thurber House is the setting for continuous offerings of writing workshops, readings by authors and journalists, and exhibitions of literary-related art in the Thurber Center Gallery. The complex is a wonderful resource for readers, writers, and humorists of all ilk, as well as a spectacular example of architectural preservation and restoration.

Contacting Me

Contact me via e-mail at estrand@ling.ohio-state.edu

Or do it the old-fashioned way. Write to me at:


OSU Department of Linguistics
222 Oxley Hall
1712 Neil Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1298