Sandra Disner
Research & Practice Areas
Forensic linguistics, phonetics and phonology,
accents of American English.
Center, Institute & Lab Affiliations
- NIST Scientific Area Committee on Speaker Recognition, member
Education
- Ph.D. Linguistics, UCLA, 6/1983
- M.A. Linguistics, UCLA, 6/1978
- B.A. Wellesley College, 6/1972
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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,
- Lecturer, UCLA,
- Lecturer, USC,
- Lecturer, U.C. Riverside, Spring Fall
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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
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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
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- (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,
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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.
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- 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
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Other Advisement or Time Devoted to Students
- Supervised three Independent Study courses for undergraduates in the Linguistics Department, 2012-2013
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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
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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
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