Emma Wilkinson

Raised in a single-parent household after her father lost his fight with Glioblastoma in 2002, Emma had plans growing up to have a career in medicine. However, “Since focusing more on my major, Linguistics with specialization Language and Society, I learned a lot more about my passion and have decided to focus on pursuing Linguistics as a career path over medicine.” She has a position at a Linguistics lab and her other classes have provided many cultural experiences. She has also improved her fluency to better speak and understand her mother’s native language through the Japanese Studies language classes.

It was through a Phonetics class where Emma, an Eleanor Roosevelt College Honors student, learned of a study where a particular sound recording was played alternately over the image of a White or Asian face, and participants reported hearing the Asian recording as more accented and less comprehensible. Her mother recalled to her a trip to the Midwest, where people seemed to hear her slight Japanese accent and immediately assumed they could not understand her speech. Now Emma desires to conduct research on what specific features, either auditory or visual, trigger the most biased responses: “To understand implicit bias in people, I believe it is vital to examine linguistic features to further the fight against inequity. While appearance is easy to attribute to bias and discrimination, sounds and vocal quality can be harder to pinpoint, yet at times are even more important.”

She looks to understand implicit bias in people. “I believe it is vital to examine linguistic features to further the fight against inequity. Reading research papers in my Linguistics, Anthropology, and Sociology classes shows me the excitement of conducting research on the frontline of discovery and all the unknowns there still are in Language. It is so automatic and taken for granted by speakers and signers, despite how utterly intricate and hidden Language remains.” In conjunction with her research efforts, Emma wants to examine herself for unconscious bias. “I want to be a person who is supportive and equitable and is seen as a comforting presence by the people around me. I am always careful with my wording and only share genuine feelings because I find that to be the most welcome coming from someone else.”