Katie Carmichael, an assistant professor in the Department of English, was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to investigate the sociolinguistic impact of Hurricane Katrina.

The project focuses on the effects of displacement and migration on the language spoken in the city of New Orleans, which reflects linguistic elements of Creoles, African Americans, European Americans, and Latinos. Carmichael and undergraduate students, along with a team of faculty and students from Tulane University, will interview residents of the city to learn how individuals characterize their language.

The award, from the NSF Linguistics program in the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, is for $131,756.

In addition, Carmichael published “‘Since When Does the Midwest Have an Accent?’: The Role of Regional Accent and Reported Speaker Origin in Speaker Evaluations,” English World-Wide 39.2 (2018): 127–56.