Who we are


Our lab was founded in Winter 2015 by Professors Lorenzo García-Amaya and Nicholas Henriksen, two faculty members in the Department of Romance Languages & Literatures at the University of Michigan. We also collaborate with colleagues in the Departments of Linguistics, Psychology, and the Institute for Social Research.

What we do


Our research focuses on multiple areas of linguistic analysis, including sociophonetics, second language acquisition, sound change, psycholinguistics, and study abroad, among others.

We have collected speech data from multiple varieties throughout the Spanish-speaking world, including north-central (Castilian) Spanish, Andalusian Spanish, Buenos Aires Spanish, Patagonian Spanish, Peruvian Spanish, and Chicago US Spanish.

We often collaborate with multiple teams of undergraduate research assistants, through opportunities such as UROP, work-study, independent studies, and honors theses. Our graduate student collaborators come from multiple units within Michigan's College of the Literature, Sciences, and the Arts.

Our publications appear in journals in phonetic sciences, laboratory phonology, language acquisition, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, in addition to multiple public (non-academic) venues.

Join Our Team

News


Collaboratory publishes in Inside Higher Ed !


The Africa-to-Patagonia Collaboratory team published an article entitled Collaboration transcending crisis in Insider Higher Ed. The article offers a critical view into the meaning of collaboration in the undergraduate experience, and is a deep reflection into the power of undergraduate engagement and harnessing collective wisdom. The ideas presented in the article derive from years of intense collaboration on the project "From Africa to Patagonia: Voices of Displacement", funded by Michigan's Humanities Collaboratory. The four student authors who spearheaded the essay are Ian K. Cook (Spanish, 2018), Ella Deaton (Spanish, 2017), Ellie Johandes (Spanish, expected 2021), and Kelly Kendro (Spanish & Italian, 2019). The remaining authors are their research mentors: Nick Henriksen, Paulina Alberto, Andries Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Victoria Langland, Ana Silva, and Ryan Szpiech.

Lorenzo García-Amaya wins the Golden Apple Award!


Congratulations to Lorenzo García-Amaya, who is the 2020 winner of Michigan's Golden Apple Award, the highest student-selected award for faculty who show a strong commitment to undergraduate teaching. Lorenzo was in the middle of the Speech Production Lab’s first virtual meeting on March 19, 2020, when Kyle Riebock and Emily McCann, the co-presidents of the Golden Apple committee, appeared on screen and presented the award to him. You can read more about the award here, and watch the video presentation here. You can also view his 2020 Golden Apple Award Lecture that took place October 16th here.

Nine SPL members publish about their seminar on Andalusian Spanish!

Nine SPL members published the article entitled "Socially Distant Yet Intellectually Close", which reflects on their experiences after having taken Spanish 487 with Nick Henriksen Spring 2020. The course was an interdisciplinary sociolinguistics seminar entitled "Do you speak Andalusian?", and their essay synthesizes some strategies for reimagining pedagogy in a remote-teaching context. The authors are now collaborating on a continuation of their research and hope to publish their findings in a top journal in Linguistics. Many congrats to the nine Spanish majors who authored this collaborative essay: Zoe Phillips, Amber Galvano, Ellie Maly, Jessica Czapla, Natalie Dakki, Sarah Khansa, Vidhya Premkumar, Stepan Topouzian, & Tommy Wiaduck.

Collaboratory publishes in Inside Higher Ed !


The Africa-to-Patagonia Collaboratory team published an article entitled Collaboration transcending crisis in Insider Higher Ed. The article offers a critical view into the meaning of collaboration in the undergraduate experience, and is a deep reflection into the power of undergraduate engagement and harnessing collective wisdom. The ideas presented in the article derive from years of intense collaboration on the project "From Africa to Patagonia: Voices of Displacement", funded by Michigan's Humanities Collaboratory. The four student authors who spearheaded the essay are Ian K. Cook (Spanish, 2018), Ella Deaton (Spanish, 2017), Ellie Johandes (Spanish, expected 2021), and Kelly Kendro (Spanish & Italian, 2019). The remaining authors are their research mentors: Nick Henriksen, Paulina Alberto, Andries Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Victoria Langland, Ana Silva, and Ryan Szpiech.

Lorenzo García-Amaya wins the Golden Apple Award!


Congratulations to Lorenzo García-Amaya, who is the 2020 winner of Michigan's Golden Apple Award, the highest student-selected award for faculty who show a strong commitment to undergraduate teaching. Lorenzo was in the middle of the Speech Production Lab’s first virtual meeting on March 19, 2020, when Kyle Riebock and Emily McCann, the co-presidents of the Golden Apple committee, appeared on screen and presented the award to him. You can read more about the award here, and watch the video presentation here. You can also view his 2020 Golden Apple Award Lecture that took place October 16th here.

Nine SPL members publish about their seminar on Andalusian Spanish!


Nine SPL members published the article entitled "Socially Distant Yet Intellectually Close", which reflects on their experiences after having taken Spanish 487 with Nick Henriksen Spring 2020. The course was an interdisciplinary sociolinguistics seminar entitled "Do you speak Andalusian?", and their essay synthesizes some strategies for reimagining pedagogy in a remote-teaching context. The authors are now collaborating on a continuation of their research and hope to publish their findings in a top journal in Linguistics. Many congrats to the nine Spanish majors who authored this collaborative essay: Zoe Phillips, Amber Galvano, Ellie Maly, Jessica Czapla, Natalie Dakki, Sarah Khansa, Vidhya Premkumar, Stepan Topouzian, & Tommy Wiaduck.

Featured project


From Africa to Patagonia: Voices of Displacement


Learn More

Location


Humanities Collaboratory,
Hatcher Graduate Library
913 S University Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Get in touch


Email our principal investigators for inquiries.

lgarciaa@umich.edu

Lorenzo García-Amaya

nhenriks@umich.edu

Nicholas Henriksen

@um.speech.lab
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Black Lives Matter


The SPL fully supports the Black Lives Matter movement and absolutely rejects racism, inequality of opportunity, hatred, and cruelty. We are firm in our commitment to anti-racist beliefs and standing up against injustice. We encourage everyone to register to vote, educate yourself, call your representatives, sign petitions, donate, or help in whatever ways you can. Here are some good places to start: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ and https://www.naacp.org/about-us/. The University of Michigan's Museum of Art (UMMA) has also compiled an impressive list of resources to bring awareness to anti-racist issues, which can be accessed here: https://umma.umich.edu/blm.