USC.edu

Sandra Disner

Associate Professor (Teaching) of Linguistics
Email sdisner@usc.edu Office GFS 301 Office Phone (213) 821-2309

Research & Practice Areas

Forensic linguistics, phonetics and phonology,
accents of American English.

Education

  • Ph.D. Linguistics, UCLA, 6/1983
  • M.A. Linguistics, UCLA, 6/1978
  • B.A. , Wellesley College, 6/1972

  • Research, Teaching, Practice, and Clinical Appointments

    • Associate Professor (Teaching), USC,
    • Assistant Professor (Teaching) , USC, 2014-2015
    • Assistant Professor (Teaching) , USC, 2013-2014
    • Assistant Professor (Teaching) , USC,
    • Lecturer, USC,
    • Lecturer, USC,
    • Lecturer, USC,

    Visiting and Temporary Appointments

    • Lecturer, USC, 2008-2009
    • Lecturer, USC,
    • Lecturer, UCLA,
    • Lecturer, USC,
    • Lecturer, U.C. Riverside, Spring Fall

  • USC Funding

    • Larger Faculty Development Grant. Conference travel — Int’l Assn for Forensic Phonetics & Acoustics $1,500, 2016-2017
    • Larger Faculty Development Grant. Conference travel — Int’l Assn for Forensic Phonetics & Acoustics $1,500, 2015-2016
    • Larger Faculty Development Grant. West Coast Roundtable on Language & Law $1,500, 2012-2013
    • Faculty Travel Grant. International Assn of Forensic Linguists $500, 2011-2012
    • Fund for Innovative Undergraduate Teaching. Speaker Identification $5,000, 2008-2010

  • Conference Presentations

    • “F2 and F3 Covariance as evidence of speaker identity” , 27th annual IAFPA conferencePoster, International Association for Forensic Phonetica a, Huddersfield, England, 2018 –
    • “Case Study on Earwitness Reliability” , International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics, 26th annual conferenceTalk/Oral Presentation, Split Croatia, 2017 –
    • “A Trademark Case which relies crucially on phonetics and dialectology” , International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics, 25th annual conferenceTalk/Oral Presentation, York, England, 2016 –
    • “The fine structure of phonation as a biometric” , Acoustical Society of AmericaPoster, Cancun, Mexico, 2010 –
    • “Utility of length-normalization for predicting confusion.” , 30th annual conference of the International Association for Forensic Phonetics and AcousticsTalk/Oral Presentation, Prague, Czech Republic, 07/2022
    • “On the phonetics of trademark infringement.” , 29th annual conference of the International Association for Forensic Phonetics and AcousticsTalk/Oral Presentation, Marburg, Germany, 07/2021
    • “” , Phonetics and Phonology in Europe 2019Session chair, Lecce, Italy, 2019
    • “Closing remarks of Discussant Session on Forensic Phonetics & Speaker Characteristics” , International Congress of Phonetic SciencesTalk/Oral Presentation, Invited, Glasgow, Scotland, 08/14/2015
    • “Sound analysis of trademarks” , 11th Biennial, International Association of Forensic LinguistsTalk/Oral Presentation, Mexico City, 07/2013
    • “Examining the voice bar” , Acoustical Society of AmericaPoster, San Diego, CA, Fall 2011
    • “Individuating vocal characteristics with the reassigned spectrogram” , International Association of Forensic LinguistsPoster, Birmingham, England, Spring 2011
    • “Advanced time-frequency displays applied to forensic speaker identification ” , Acoustical Society of AmericaPoster, Portland, Oregon, 2008-2009

    Other Presentations

    • “Linguistics in Legal Disputes”, “Distinguished Voices” lecture, Univ. of California, Irvine, 2018-CONT
    • “Fanciful trademarks require some sleuthing”, 6th West Coast Roundtable on Language and Law, San Francisco, CA, 2012-CONT
    • “Phonetic complements to linguistic evidence”, 5th West Coast Roundtable on Language and Law, Vancouver, Canada, 2011-CONT
    • “Cross-language differences in related vowels”, Participant in “Pisa Lectures” series, Pisa, Italy, 1987-1988

  • Book

    • Ladefoged, P., Disner, S. F. (2012). Vowels and Consonants. Hoboken NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Book Chapter

    • Van Heuven, V., Afshar, N., Disner, S. F. (2020). Mapping perceptual vowel spaces in native and foreign language. Bilingualism: Hungarian and non- Hungarian contex pp. 12. Veszprém: University of Pannonia.

    Encyclopedia Article

    • Disner, S. F. (2013). Forensic Linguistics. Heidelberg: Springer: Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

  • Other Advisement or Time Devoted to Students

      Supervised three Independent Study courses for undergraduates in the Linguistics Department

  • Administrative Appointments

    • Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Linguistics, 2018

    Committees

    • Secretary, Eta of California chapter, Phi Beta Kappa society, 2018-2019
    • Linguistics Department consultative committee on the selection of a Department Chair.,
    • Linguistics Department consultative committee on the selection of an Interim Department Chair., 2015-2016
    • Linguistics Department consultative committee on the selection of a Department Chair., 2012-2013

    Other Service to the University

    • Presented research findings at the annual breakfast meeting of the Fund for Innovative Undergraduate Teaching, 2010-2011

  • Committees

    • “Secretary, Eta of California chapter, Phi Beta Kappa society”, 2018-2019
    • “Linguistics Department consultative committee on the selection of a Department Chair.”, 2018-2019
    • “Linguistics Department consultative committee on the selection of an Interim Department Chair.”, 2015-2016
    • “Linguistics Department consultative committee on the selection of a Department Chair.”, 2012-2013

    Media, Alumni, and Community Relations

    • Quoted by USA Today on the lasting importance of spelling,
    • Quoted by Yahoo News on early childhood language,
    • Interviewed by CNN http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/03/did-bowe-bergdahl-forget-english/,
    • Quoted by USA Today in an article on bilingualism,