In my academic tenure, I sought answers to questions about language, the human mind, and how we use nuance in language to build relationships, persuade others, and shape our understandings of the world.
Now, I use techniques/methods from discourse analysis, linguistics, cognitive science, and psychology in my work in Digital Strategy and Branding, while performing website and social media analytics or in deciding the voice and look of a brand.
Research Areas
• How successful communicators use language to present their brand and build relationships;
• The ways in which breakdowns in communication can occur;
• Language on social media and how social media changes how people talk;
• How communicators persuade others and shape our understandings of the world (e.g., indications of bias in language through positioning, framing, and knowledge management);
• Language strategies to promote institutions' legitimacy and counter allegations of illegitimacy.
Conference Presentations
Ruhlman Conference 2017—
The Effects of Early Bilingualism on Asymmetry in the Mental Lexicon: A Pilot Study
• Research on the different natures of early and late bilingual mental lexicons using a cross-linguistic priming experimental design.
Graduate Student North America Systemic Functional Linguistics Association Conference 2019—
U.S. vs. P.R.: Analyzing the Reproduction of Systems of Inequality in Public Statements by President Trump about Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria
• Analyzes the ideological subtext in President Trump’s statements about Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017, as well as communicative strategies including othering, agency, modality, and evaluation.
Additional Work
Undergraduate Research Assistant—MIT Language Acquisition Lab (2015–2016)
Editor—Presidential Inaugural Address as a Canopy: Comparing President Obama to Trump (Ishigami, 2021/in-progress)
