Sarah Bakst
Speech scientist focusing on role of auditory system in speech production and self-perception
Research
I am currently a linguist at SRI International. Previously, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Waisman Center at UW–Madison, working under Dr. Caroline Niziolek in the Brain, Language, and Acoustic Behavior (BLAB) lab. I also worked with the Binaural Hearing and Speech Lab (BHSL), directed by Dr. Ruth Litovsky. I still collaborate with both labs.
My research with both labs concerned the role of auditory feedback in speech production in people learning a second language (including a magnetoencephalography component, pictured) and in people who use cochlear implants.
About me
In 2011 I graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. in Linguistics and a secondary field (minor) in Classics. While there I focused mainly on phonology and historical linguistics; my honors thesis gave a phonological account of Ancient Greek pitch accent in clitic groups. I spent the following year studying phonetics at the University of Cambridge and graduated in 2012 with an M.Phil. in Linguistics. In my thesis I used static palatography to revisit an observation by Ladefoged & Bhaskararao (1983) regarding the difference in the articulation of retroflex consonants in Indic and Dravidian languages. In 2017 I completed my Ph.D. in Linguistics at UC Berkeley, where I was advised by Keith Johnson, Susan Lin, and John Houde (UCSF). My graduate work in phonetics studied individual differences in speech production and perception in typical (and typically college-aged) adults.
मुझे हिन्दी आती है । எனக்கு கொஞ்சம் தமிழ் தெரியும், e parlo italiano!
(I speak Hindi, some Tamil, and Italian!)