Rob Podesva

I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Stanford University. I received my Ph.D. and M.A. from Stanford University, my B.A. from Cornell University, and I am a former faculty member of the Department of Linguistics at Georgetown University. I teach a variety of courses on sociolinguistic variation, language and identity, and phonetics. My research examines the social significance of phonetic variation in the domains of vowels, consonants, prosody, and voice quality. I am particularly interested in how individuals draw on phonetic resources to construct identity, most notably gender, sexuality, race, and their intersections. My current projects investigate the linguistic practices of residents of communities in Northern California and Washington, D.C., gay professionals, and U.S. politicians. I have co-edited two volumes on the topic of language and sexuality and am currently editing a collection on research methods in linguistics. I live in San Francisco.