Category: People

MI Diaries Researchers Presenting at MCTE 2026

October 20, 2026

Project Lead Dr. Betsy Sneller and Postdoctoral Researcher Joel Berends will be presenting at the Michigan Council of Teachers of English Fall Conference on October 16. They’re presenting with high school teachers, Greg Schreur of Grand Rapids City High-Middle and April Mueller of West Ottawa High School, and sharing possibilities for use of the Just Talking app (a generalized version of the MI Diaries software) in classroom speaking events.

Conferences / Faculty / Graduate Students / Research

Lab Members Presenting at NWAV 54

October 20, 2026

Several Socio Lab members are taking their research to the 54th News Ways of Analyzing Variation conference, to be held in Montréal from October 22nd-24th, 2026. For more information on these projects, see the abstracts linked below: Jess Shepherd and Betsy Sneller will present "Domain-narrowing of a variable phonological rule in parent-to-child transmission." [ABSTRACT] Adam Barnhardt will present "The development of style in adolescence and its implications for theories of sound change." [ABSTRACT] Annan Kirk will present "'Kinda took it easy yet': non-polar yet in Michigan English." [ABSTRACT] Connor Bechler will present "UHM in Michigan English: Variation as a Lens on the Grammar." [ABSTRACT] Drake Howard will present "Underspecified singular they and pronoun switch in the MI Diaries Corpus." [ABSTRACT]

Undergraduates

Former PA Julia Bolash featured in CAL Profile

October 14, 2026

Former Professorial Assistant (PA) and member of the Sociolinguistics Lab, Julia Bolash was recently featured in a College of Arts and Letters (CAL) news profile. As a PA, Julia attended the Socio Lab and worked with MI Diaries, where she helped keep everything running and was responsible for many of our beautiful graphics.. She is majoring in Experience Architecture with minors in Graphic Design and Museum Studies, and co-founded and leads the Spartan Printing Association. To hear more about Julia's impressive achievements, and brilliance with 1920s Printing Presses, please check out the CAL Profile linked below! Congratulations Julia! Read more on the College of Arts and Letters website here.

Conferences / Research / Undergraduates

Lab member Connor Mason wins First Place UURAF Award

September 10, 2026

Connor Mason, an undergraduate Sociolinguistics Lab member and Professorial Assistant for the MI Diaries project, won first place in the Linguistics, Languages, and Speech category at MSU's 2026 University Undergraduate Research and Arts Fair (UURAF). The project focused on the usage of 'lowkey' in contemporary American English, incorporating data from the MI Diaries corpus to track changes in apparent time regarding the grammatical distribution of 'lowkey'. Connor was advised by Dr. Suzanne Wagner and Dr. Betsy Sneller. Congratulations, Connor! Read more on the College of Arts and Letters website here.

Conferences / Events / Research / Undergraduates

Honors Students Present Sociolinguistic Research at UURAF

September 9, 2026

Over the course of the 2025-2026 academic year, Dr. Betsy Sneller and Dr. Suzanne Wagner led an Honors Research Seminar on the MI Diaries project for Honors undergraduate students at Michigan State. During this time, students of the seminar designed and executed original sociolinguistic research projects and presented their findings in poster format at the University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum in April 2026 (read more about UURAF and the linguistics and languages students who presented). Congratulations, Honors Seminar members! Lab member Lin Cabada also presented an independent research project that grew from an Honors Option paper they completed for Dr. Wagner's Language and Gender class in Fall 2025. Here's a list of the presenters and their poster titles: Mary Cavagnetto and Elle Jacobson / How do people talk about accents in Michigan’s Thumb and UP? / Betsy Sneller and Suzanne Wagner Chae Eun Park and Keira Wesley / Social perceptions of uh vs. um / Betsy Sneller and Suzanne Wagner Rachel Ross / “So, uhm, yeah”: A case study of uhm development between 5-9 years old / Betsy Sneller and Suzanne Wagner Lily Kwon and Bai Yang Clemens / Is “low-key” going low-key adverbial? / Suzanne Wagner and Betsy Sneller Connor Mason / A lowkey examination of lowkey in the MI Diaries corpus / Suzanne Wagner and Betsy Sneller (with assistance from Adam Barnhardt) Allison Phillips, Antony Tokrri, Jad Assaf / “Pretty” is pretty cool / Suzanne Wagner and Betsy Sneller (with assistance from Annan Kirk) Lin Cabada / Gender-marked occupational terms at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum / Suzanne Wagner Allison Phillips, Antony Tokrri, and Jad Assaf Bai Yang Clemens and Lily Kwon Mary Cavagnetto and Elle Jacobson Lin Cabada Connor Mason Keira Wesley Rachel Ross