1998-Present
    University of Pennsylvania
Ph.D. Candidate in Linguistics. William Labov, dissertation advisor.
Fontaine Fellowship. Full-expense fellow ship awarded to African-American students pursuing the doctoral degree at the University of Pennsylvania.
Ph.D. examinations passed in four areas of focus: Sociolinguistics, Historical Linguistics, Phonology, and Educational Linguistics.

1997-1998
    Harvard University
MA in Linguistics. Calvert Watkins, advisor. Master's thesis topic: Phonetic and phonological observations of the music of Bessie Smith.
Earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in four years, through extra coursework and high grades-honor granted to only 9 out of 1600 students per class.

1994-1998
    Harvard University
BA magna cum laude in Linguistics. Sub-field of Romance Languages.

1981-1994
    St. Catherine’s School, Richmond, VA
 13-year senior. A.P. Scholar with distinction, Cum Laude Society
 

                                                                                                         Research Interests

Sociolinguistics, African-American Vernacular English, relationship between reading and dialect, African American Music and Intonation, Acquisition of first and second dialects, Southern American English, La Francophonie.

                                                                                                            Languages

English -Native Language
French -Non-native Fluency and used as language of research; Ph.D. reading examination waived
Spanish - Proficiency and used as language of research; Passed Ph.D. reading examination
Mandarin Chinese -Three years and one Native Speaker refresher course in College
Classical Ethopic (Ge'ez) - Two years of translation coursework.

                                                                                                      Research Experience

2001-present     Urban Minorities Reading Project. University of Pennsylvania Department of Linguistics, William Labov, principal investigator.
                          Lead research assistant on 5-member team. Managed recordings and database and planned and executed analysis of speech of
                          African-American, White, And Latino Children from Philadelphia and California. Trained field interviewers and transcriptionist, as well as
                          other speech analyzers.

2000-present   Nature and Acquisition of the Speech Code and Reading: Project V - Phonological Development and the Acquisition of
                        Literacy, S. Brady, A. Fowler, P. Macaruso & D. Shankweiler, and H. Scarborough, principal investigators. Haskins Laboratories at Yale
                        University and American Federation of Teachers. Research Assistant for Hollis Scarborough. Co-author of stimuli and score sheet for
                        analysis of sentence repetition by African-American children grades K-2. Principle analyst of speech of over 300 hundred
                        African-American children and co-writer of research results.

1999-2000     African-American Literature and Culture Project. University of Pennsylvania Department of Linguistics, William Labov, principal
                      investigator. Acted as site supervisor for University of Pennsylvania undergraduate tutors. Researched sociolinguistic and educational
                      aspects of children in West Philadelphia schools. Provided audio-visual materials for use in Linguistics 161, Introduction to
                      African-American English.

1998-1999     Center for Gerontological Nursing, University of Pennsylvania. Scored sentences of Alzheimer's patients for grammaticality and dialect
                       influence. Karen Talerico, Ph.D. candidate in Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, principle investigator, Dr. Murray Grossman,
                       advisor.

In Progress
    Charity, Anne and Hollis Scarborough. Familiarity with "School English" in low-SES African-American Children and its Relation to Early Reading Achievement. Submitted to Child Development.

In Press
    Style-shifting and range of dialect in the formal speech of African-American elementary school children. New Ways of Analyzing Variation 31 Proceedings, The University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics Vol.9.3

2001a
    Sankoff, Gillian, Hélène Blondeau & Anne Charity. Individual roles in a real-time change: Montreal (r->R) 1947 ?1995". In Hans Van de Velde & Roeland van Hout (eds.), 'r-atics: Sociolinguistic, phonetic and phonological characteristics of /r/. Brussels: ILVP.

2001b
    Sankoff, Gillian, Hélène Blondeau & Anne Charity. Parcours individuels et changements linguistiques en cours dans la communauté francophone
montréalaise. Dans la Revue Quebecois de Linguistique.
 

                                                                                    Refereed Conference Presentations

2003        Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. Teacher Talk and Text Talk. Differences in the dialect of school and the home dialects of
                elementary school children in the early grades. To be presented in June, 2003.

2002a     New Ways of Analyzing Variation 31. Stanford University. Range of dialect in the formal speech of African-American Elementary School
               Children.

2002b     New Ways of Analyzing Variation 31. Stanford University. Active knowledge of Standard English and reading ability in African-American
               Elementary School Children. With Hollis Scarborough, and Darion Griffin.

2002c     Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. Is Unfamiliarity with "School English" Related to Reading Achievement by African-American
               Students? With Hollis Scarborough and Darion Griffin.

2001a     Canadian Linguistic Association Meeting. University of Laval. Parcours individuels et changements linguistiques en cours dans la
               communautéf rancophone montréalaise. With Hélène Blondeau, and Gillian Sankoff.

2001b     New Ways of Analyzing Variation 30. North Carolina State University.  Social mobility and social solidarity: longitudinal evidence in
               Montreal French. With Gillian Sankoff and Hélène Blondeau.

2001c     Canadian Anthropological and Society. Trajectoires individuelles et nouvelles normes communautaires du français montréalais. With Gillian
               Sankoff and Hélène Blondeau.

2000     New Ways of Analyzing Variation 29. Michigan State University. Individual roles in a real-time change: Montreal (r->R) 1947 - 1995. With
             Gillian Sankoff and Hélène Blondeau.

1999     New Ways of Analyzing Variation 28. University of Toronto. Use of be-like and other verbs of quotation in an African-American
             community. With Tara Sanchez.
 
 

2003     American Federation of Teachers Quest National Conference. Is unfamiliarity with "school English" related to reading acquisition by
             African-American students? Will be presented in July 2003 with Hollis Scarborough.

2002a     Bryn Mawr Department of Psychology Lunch Series. Possible reasons for the range of dialect differences in low-SES African-American
              Elementary School Students. With Hollis Scarborough.

2002b     Haskins Laboratories, Yale University. Presentation of the CAPSS Sentence Imitation Test and Correlation of Dialect and Reading in
               African-American Children. With Hollis Scarborough.

2001a     Bryn Mawr Department of Psychology Lunch Series. Research in progress on the Combined Assessment of Print Concepts, Sentence
               Imitation and Story Recall in African-American Children. With Hollis Scarborough.

2001b     New York University Department of Linguistics. Changes Across the Lifespan in a Real Time Change: Montreal (r->R) 1947 - 1995.
               With Gillian Sankoff and Hélène Blondeau.
 
 

Fall 2002
    Writing Tutor. Linguistics 057, Linguistics and Popular Culture. University of Pennsylvania Department of Linguistics. Harold Schiffman, instructor. Individual writing instruction with students in a Linguistics and Expository Writing Course.

2000-2002
    Head Graduate Fellow, African-American Studies Pre-Freshman Summer Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. Teaching fellow for African-American Music and Culture under Professor Guthrie P. Ramsey. 2001-2002.

2000-2001
    Head Instructor and Resident Fellow, McNair Scholars Program. University of Pennsylvania. The McNair Program is a nation-wide program designed to encourage first-generation college students and minorities to pursue doctoral degrees in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Instructor for Research Methods Course for rising sophomores and juniors. Emphasis on methodology for the social sciences and statistical analysis.

1999
    Elementary Music Teacher, Our Lady of the Rosary School. Catholic Diocese of Philadelphia, PA. Taught music history and theory to grades 1-8 in African-American Catholic Elementary School. Focus on history of African-American music and performers.
Guest Lectures

1999
    University of Pennsylvania, Freshman Seminar on Dialects. Beatrice Santorini, instructor. Guest Lecturer on Matched Guise Tests of African-Americans and Whites in Philadelphia.

1997-1998
    Harvard University, Linguistics 80, Dialects of English. Bert Vaux, instructor. Guest Lecturer on Principles of African-American Vernacular English and the Ebonics Controversy.

1999
    Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Student Conference Travel Award for Travel to New Ways of Analyzing Variation 29 Conference

1999
    Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute Graduate fellowship

1998
    Fontaine Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania

1997
    UCLA Summer Graduate Fellowship in Linguistics

1997
    Harvard College Department of Romance Languages Summer Internship Award for top students of the French Language

1997
    Summer internship position, Heinle and Heinle Publishers for Romance language textbooks in the French Language division.

Linguistic Society of America Committee on Ethnic Diversity. 2000-2002. Appointed to national committee by a quorum of linguists across America to address issues of diversity in the field of linguistics.

Student-Faculty Liaison. 1999-2000. Student representative to linguistics department faculty. Duties included attending faculty meetings, participating in job searches, and being a peer contact. Participated in search for tenure-track syntax position.

Vocal Performance (Former Member of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the symphony Chorus for the Boston Symphony Orchestra), Weightlifting, Cooking
 
 

William Labov
Professor of Linguistics
Sociolinguistics Laboratory
University of Pennsylvania
3550 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 898-4912

Gillian Sankoff
Professor of Linguistics
Sociolinguistics Laboratory
University of Pennsylvania
3550 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 898-4912

Hollis Scarborough
Senior Research Scientist
Haskins Laboratories, Yale University
Lecturer, Department of Psychology, Bryn Mawr College
309 Grove Rd.
South Orange, NJ 07079
(973) 762-3482

Tukufu Zuberi
Professor of Sociology
Director of African American Studies Program
University of Pennsylvania
231 McNeil Building
Philadelphia PA 19104
(215-898-6441)

Calvert Watkins
Professor of Linguistics and Classics
Harvard University
314 Boylston Hall
Cambridge, MA 02138
496-2318