Nicole Holliday
Primary tabs
Main profile
I am a sociophonetician, specifically interested in how people use linguistic variation to perform and construct their social identities and to understand the identities of others through differences in their use of properties related to intonation and voice quality. More recently, I’ve been focused on the social uses and effects of speech technology, especially as they relate to the nature of variation and inequality. I also work on political speech and identity, with a special focus on figures such as Barack Obama and Kamala Harris.
My ongoing research aims to address how speakers and listeners make social judgments based on acoustic properties, using quantitative methods, with a concentration on prosodic variables. I’m currently (2020-2025) the PI on a grant entitled "Don’t Take That Tone With Me”: Linguistic Variation and Disciplinary Action on African American Children in Schools” along with Dr. Sabriya Fisher (Wellesley College). The project is funded by the Lyle Spencer Research Awards. Over the last several years, I’ve taught Language and Society, Sociophonetics, and Prosody abd Social Identity. I’ve also taught several semesters of Linguistic Discrimination, which is conducted in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Format.