My research examines salience in phonological processing and representation, with particular attention to how some phonological structures and phonetic details become more prominent than others in speech perception and cognitive organization. I investigate how listeners attend to and weigh phonetic cues in the discrimination of phonological contrasts, and how these weighting patterns shape phonological representation. A central concept in my work is contrastive weighting, the idea that certain phonological contrasts are perceptually prioritized over others within the same linguistic system. 

I approach these questions from interconnected perspectives across first-language (L1), second-language (L2), and heritage-language phonological processing. A central part of my work examines how native listeners process and represent phonological contrasts, particularly the phonetic dimensions that become perceptually salient within a language and how linguistic experience shapes patterns of cue weighting and perceptual attention. Building on this foundation, I investigate how listeners approach non-native phonological contrasts in L2 learning, focusing on how prior phonological knowledge conditions speech perception, category formation, and the acquisition of new sound systems. Extending these questions to heritage-language contexts, I explore how phonological structures and phonetic details are maintained, reorganized, or weakened across generations in the diaspora, and what these patterns reveal about interrupted exposure, intergenerational transmission, and long-term phonological representation. 

A central focus of my research is Yoruba, Igbo, and Akan, major languages of West Africa that also play significant roles in the linguistic and cultural life of the African diaspora.  Using experimental and mixed-methods approaches that combine qualitative and quantitative methodologies, I investigate phonological perception, cue weighting, and cross-language speech processing. My dissertation, supported by the NFMLTA-NCOLCTL Research Award, examined the perception of Yoruba labial-velar stops and contributes empirical and theoretical insights to models of speech perception and phonological learning, including the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM), Speech Learning Model (SLM), and Second Language Linguistic Perception (L2LP).

In addition to phonological processing and representation, I am interested in the role of technology in the documentation, teaching, and revitalization of African languages. More recently, my work has explored how African phonological structures are represented in Large Language Models (LLMs) and other AI systems, particularly the challenges these technologies face in modeling underrepresented African languages and their phonological systems.

I earned my Ph.D. in Linguistics from Indiana University Bloomington, and I currently serve as a Visiting Lecturer in the African Studies Program at Indiana University Bloomington, where I teach Yoruba language and culture.