Sandra Disner

Research, Teaching, Practice, and Clinical Appointments

• Associate Professor (Teaching), USC, 2022-2023
• Associate Professor (Teaching), USC, 2021-2022
• Associate Professor (Teaching), USC, 2020-2021
• Associate Professor (Teaching), USC, 2019-2020
• Associate Professor (Teaching), USC, 2018-2019
• Associate Professor (Teaching), USC, 2017-2018
• Associate Professor (Teaching), USC, 2016-2017
• Associate Professor (Teaching), USC, 2015-2016
• Assistant Professor (Teaching) , USC, 2014-2015
• Assistant Professor (Teaching) , USC, 2013-2014
• Assistant Professor (Teaching) , USC, 2012-2013
• Lecturer, USC, 2011-2012
• Lecturer, USC, 2010-2011
• Lecturer, USC, 2009-2010
• Associate Professor (Teaching), USC,

Visiting and Temporary Appointments

• Lecturer, USC, 2008-2009
• Lecturer, USC, Fall 2007
• Lecturer, UCLA, Spring 2006
• Lecturer, USC, Spring 2006
• Lecturer, U.C. Riverside, Fall 1981

Research Specialties

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

Contracts and Grants Awarded

• Toward an improved American English word list, with frequencies and transcriptions, (Int’l Assn. for Forensic Phonetics & Acoustics), Sandra Disner, V. van Heuven, W. Heeringa, $1,900, 2023-2024

USC Funding

• Larger Faculty Development Funds. Some measures of phonetic similarity for use in legal trademark disputes: “Some measures of phonetic similarity for use in legal trademark disputes”, a talk presented the quadrennial International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic, $1500, 07/2023
• Larger Faculty Development Funds. F2 and F3 covariance as evidence of speaker identity: Presentation at the International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics, Huddersfield, England, $1500, 08/2018
• Larger Faculty Development Funds. “Earwitness reliability through a lens of psycholinguistics and acoustics”: Talk at the annual conference of the International Association for Forensic Phonetics & Acoustics in Split, Croatia, and also participation in West Coast Roundtable on Language and Law in Bozeman, MT, $1500, Spring 2017
• Larger Faculty Development Funds. “A Trademark case which relies crucially on phonetics and dialectology”: Travel to York, England for the annual conference of the International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics., $1500, 08/2016
• Larger Faculty Development Funds. Closing remarks: Co-chair of Discussant Session on Forensic Phonetics & Speaker Characteristics at the Int’l Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Glasgow.

  Also participated in West Coast Roundtable for Language and Law., $1500, 06/2015

• Larger Faculty Development Funds. “Sound analysis of trademarks”: Participated in the Int’l Assn. of Forensic Linguists, Mexico City. Also the West Coast Roundtable on Language and Law, San Francisco CA. , $1500, 07/2013
• Larger Faculty Development Funds. “Phonetic complements to linguistic evidence”: Participated in the West Coast Roundtable on Language and Law, Vancouver, Canada, $500, 07/2012
• Faculty Development Funds. “Individuating vocal characteristics with the reassigned spectrogram”: Travel funds to attend the International Assn of Forensic Linguists in Birmingham, England., $500, 07/2011
• Fund for Innovative Undergraduate Teaching. Research on speaker Identification: Support for research into forensic linguistic issues, particularly the identification of a speaker by means of vocal acoustics., $5000, 05/2009 – 05/2010

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 –
• Some measures of phonetic similarity for use in legal trademark disputes , Int’l Congress of Phonetic SciencesTalk/Oral Presentation, International Phonetic Association, Prague, Czech Republic, 07/2024
• 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

• (Fall 2019) GESM 120. Seminar in Humanistic Inquiry – Language, Law and Literature, TTh, 11:00am – 12:20pm, WPH202
• (Fall 2019) GESM 120. Seminar in Humanistic Inquiry – Language, Law and Literature, MW, 05:00pm – 06:20pm, GFS109
• (Fall 2019) LING 210. Introduction to Linguistics, MW, 12:00pm – 01:50pm, GFS118
• (Spring 2020) GESM 120. Seminar in Humanistic Inquiry – Language, Law, and Literature, TTh, 05:00pm – 06:20pm, VKC254
• (Spring 2020) LING 115. Language and Society, TTh, 02:00pm – 03:20pm, WPH B27
• (Fall 2020) GESM 120. Seminar in Humanistic Inquiry – Language, Law and Literature, TTh, 05:00pm – 06:20pm, ONLINE
• (Fall 2020) LING 210. Introduction to Linguistics, MW, 12:00pm – 01:50pm, ONLINE
• (Spring 2021) GESM 120. Seminar in Humanistic Inquiry – Language, Law and Literature, MW, 02:00pm – 03:20pm
• (Spring 2021) LING 210. Introduction to Linguistics, TTh, 11:00am – 12:20pm
• (Fall 2021) GESM 120. Seminar in Humanistic Inquiry – Language, Law and Literature, TTh, 11:00am – 12:20pm, ONLINE
• (Fall 2021) LING 210. Introduction to Linguistics, TTh, 05:00pm – 06:50pm, SOS B46
• (Spring 2022) GESM 120. Seminar in Humanistic Inquiry – Language, Law and Literature, TTh, 05:00pm – 06:20pm
• (Spring 2022) LING 412. Language and Law, TTh, 12:30pm – 01:50pm
• (Fall 2022) GESM 120. Seminar in Humanistic Inquiry – Language, Law and Literature, TTh, 03:30pm – 04:50pm, CPA109
• (Fall 2022) LING 210. Introduction to Linguistics, TTh, 11:00am – 12:20pm, SOS B46
• (Spring 2023) LING 210. Introduction to Linguistics, TTh, 11:00am – 12:20pm
• (Spring 2023) LING 450. New Horizons in Forensic Speaker Identification, TTh, 03:30pm – 04:50pm
• (Spring 2024) GESM 120. Seminar in Humanistic Inquiry – Language, Law, and Literature, TTh, 03:30pm – 04:50pm
• (Spring 2024) LING 210. Introduction to Linguistics, TTh, 11:00am – 12:20pm, ZHS163
• (Fall 2024) LING 210. Introduction to Linguistics, TTh, 09:30am – 10:50am
• (Fall 2024) LING 412. Language and Law, TTh, 05:00pm – 06:20pm

• Linguistics 102: Introduction to Applied Phonetics Annual visits to UCLA to deliver lectures on forensic phonetics to the “Introduction to Applied Phonetics” course., 05/2015 – 03/2024
• Linguistics 437: Applied Linguistics Guest lectures on speaker identification at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. (remote instruction), 2016 – 2020
• Law 660 : “Trademark Law in Practice” Presented lecture on linguistic issues in trademark disputes to students at USC Law School, 03/2018
• Ling 412: Linguistic Interpretation of the Law Guest lecture on Forensic Phonetics at USC, Fall 2011
• : Trial Practice (UCLA Law School) Served as an expert witness in the students’ Trial Practice term project. (Invited to lecture by Prof. Paul Bergman of UCLA Law School), 1998 – 2001

Book

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

Book Chapters

• 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.

• Language, Law and Literature, General Education GESM 120, 2015-2016
• Leaving our own imprint, General Education GESM 120, 2015-2016
• Language, Law and Literature, General Education ARLT 100, Fall 2014
• Leaving Our Own Imprint: Adaptations of the novel, poem, story and play through the centuries, General Education ARLT 100, 2010-2011
• New Horizons in Speaker Identification, Linguistics, Spring 2010

Other Advisement or Time Devoted to Students

• Supervised three Independent Study courses for undergraduates in the Linguistics Department, 2012-2013

Administrative Appointments

• Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Linguistics, 2018 –

Committees

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

Review Panels

• USC Academic Honors & Fellowships, Fulbright applicants’ review committee, 2022 –
• USC Dornsife, Committee to select Trustee and Presidential Scholars for 2022-23, Spring 2022
• USC Dornsife, Committee to select Trustee and Presidential Scholars for 2019-20, Spring 2019
• USC Dornsife, Committee to select Trustee and Presidential Scholars for 2015-16 , Spring 2015
• USC Dornsife, Committee to select Trustee and Presidential Scholars for 2014-15, Spring 2014
• USC Dornsife, Merit Evaluation Appeal Committee , Spring 2014

Other Service to the University

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

Committees

• Member, Speaker Recognition Subcommittee, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2019 –
• Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Linguistics, 2018 –
• Member, Linguistics Department Consultative Committee on the selection of a Department Chair., 2018-2019
• Member, Linguistics Department Consultative Committee on the selection of a Department Chair., 2012-2013

Professional Memberships

• International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics, 2015 –
• International Phonetic Association, 2022-2023
• Dictionary Society of North America, 2021-2022
• International Association of Forensic Linguists, 2017-2018
• Acoustical Society of America, 2014-2015
• Linguistic Society of America, 2010-2011
• The Association for Laboratory Phonology, 2010-2011

Reviewer for Publications

• Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Refereed papers on vowel quality, 2019 –
• The Phonetician, International Society of Phonetic Sciences, Book reviews in the field of phonetics, 2012-2013
• Journal of the International Phonetic Association, Refereed papers on Western European languages, 2003-2004

Media, Alumni, and Community Relations

• Quoted by USA Today on the lasting importance of spelling, 05/2015 –
• Quoted by Yahoo News on early childhood language, 01/2015 –
• Interviewed by CNN http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/03/did-bowe-bergdahl-forget-english/, 05/2014
• Quoted by USA Today in an article on bilingualism, 05/2014

Other Service to the Profession

• Annual invitation to speak on forensic linguistics in the UCLA Ling 102 (“Applied Phonetics”) course, 2015 – 2024
• Invited to speak on the topic of forensic linguistics to the Department of Language and Linguistic Science, York University, UK.

  (Sponsored by their departmentz0, 12/2023

• Annual invitation to speak to the students in Macalester College’s Ling 494 course (“The Human Voice”), 2016 – 2020
• Video conference on careers in Linguistics for the Boise State University Linguistics Association. (twice), 11/2012 – 10/2014
• Served on coordinating committee of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the UCLA Phonetics Laboratory , Spring 2014
• Reviewed grant proposals for the National Science Foundation, 1994 – 1997