Full Professor of English Linguistics (W3), University of Konstanz
2026
WIAS-funded Visiting Researcher at the Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan (Host: Dr C. Poppe)
2024
Visiting Researcher at the Basque Centre for Brain, Cognition, and Language (BCBL, Host: Dr M. Lallier)
2018–2020
Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics, University of Kent
2020
JSPS-funded Visiting Researcher at the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, Tokyo, Japan (Host: Prof H. Kubozono)
2019
Visiting Researcher at the New Zealand Institute for Language, Brain & Behaviour, University of Canterbury, New Zealand (Host: Prof J. Hay)
2019
Visiting Researcher at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour, & Development, Western Sydney University, Australia (Host: Prof P. Keller)
2013–2018
Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics, University of Kent
2011–2013
Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of GlasgowProject ‘Fine phonetic variation and sound change: a real-time study of Glaswegian’ (PI: Dr J. H. Stuart-Smith)
2009–2013
Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of GlasgowProject ‘Timing in accents of English’ (PI: Dr R. H. Smith)
2008
Postgraduate Research Assistant, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of MunichProject ‘Articulatory cross-language study of initial consonant clusters in varying prosodic conditions’ (PI: Prof Ph. Hoole, CI: Dr C. Mooshammer)
2005–2007
Postgraduate Research Assistant, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of MunichProject ‘The structure of tonal representations – evidence from tune-text synchronisation’ (PI: Prof M. Grice, CI: Prof J. Harrington)
1998–2003
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Christian-Albrechts-University of KielProject ‘Sound patterns of German spontaneous speech’ (PI: Prof K.J. Kohler)
Education and professional qualifications
2015–present
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA)
2013–2015
Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE), University of Kent
2004–2009
PhD in Phonetics and Phonology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of MunichDissertation: ‘Contrastive phonetics and phonology of German and Russian intonation systems’ (Advisor: Prof J. M. Harrington; Second Examiner: PD Dr Hartmut Pfitzinger)
1998–2003
M.A. in Phonetics and Phonology (Major), General and Comparative Linguistics and Developmental Psychology, Christian-Albrechts-University of KielDissertation: ‘A perception study of Russian questions and statements’ (Advisor: Prof K. J. Kohler)
1993–1997
Undergraduate studies in German language and literature, Immanuel-Kant-University of KaliningradDissertation: ‘Emotive functions of intonation’ (Advisor: Dr T. A. Potemina)
Awards and prizes
2025
Visiting Researcher Fellowship from the Waseda Institute for the Advanced Study for a research stay at the University of Waseda (host: Dr Clemens Poppe)
2020
Visiting Researcher Fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for a research stay at the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL, host: Prof Haruo Kubozono)
2017
“Above and Beyond” Teaching Award, Kent University Union
2016
Erasmus+ Teaching Mobility Programme Award, University of Kent, for a teaching visit at the Humboldt University of Berlin
2015
Teaching Award in the category “Fantastic Feedback”, Kent University Union
2014
APA: PeePs – Particularly exciting experiments in Psychology (11th of September 2014) award for the paper by Falk, Rathcke & Dalla Bella (2014, JEP: HPP)
2012
International Exchange Programme Award from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, to visit LANCHART Research Centre in Copenhagen (PI, £1,200)
2012
Conference Attendance Award from the School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow
2010
International Exchange Programme Award from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, to visit Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (£1,200)
2010
The Eugénie Henderson Prize for the best poster presentation by a non-member at the BAAP 2010 Colloquium, London
2004–2005
Governmental PhD-scholarship from the Arts Council of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany (€11,400)
1997–1998
German Studies Scholarship from the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel (€10,200)
Funding
2021–2025
Perceptions of political charisma in low-status speakersResearch Grant, Konstanz Excellence Cluster ‘Political Inequality’ (PI, CI: Dr Diego Frassinelli, CI: Prof Susumu Shikano, CI: Prof Stephan Streuber; €372,818)
2019
Rhythm perception in JapaneseTravel grant, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation (PI; £1,800)
2019–2023
Prosodic cues to syntactic reanalysis: experimentally tracking Jespersen's cycle in progressResearch Grant, Flanders Research Council FWO (CI, PI: Prof Anne Breitbarth, CI: Prof Claudia Crocco, CI: Dr Jacopo Garzonio; €221,186)
2018–2021
Does language have groove? Sensorimotor synchronisation for the study of linguistic rhythmResearch Grant, Leverhulme Trust (PI, CI: Dr Simone Falk, CI: Prof Simone Dalla Bella; £203,349)
2016–2018
Speaking or singing? On the origins of the speech-to-song illusionBritish Academy Small Research Grant Scheme (PI, CI: Dr Simone Falk, CI: Prof Simone Dalla Bella; £9,998)
2017–2018
Cross-linguistic studies at the syntax-phonology interfaceGhent/Kent collaborative fund (CI, PI: Prof Breitbarth, CI: Prof Crocco; £960)
2016
EU Partnership Fund, University of Kent (CI, PI: Prof Amalia Arvaniti; £2,040)
2016
Faculty of the Humanities Research Fund, University of Kent (£700)
2016
School on Prosody, PG Training Fund from the International Speech Communication Association (CI, PI: Prof Mariapaola D'Imperio, CI: Prof Amalia Arvaniti; €2,000)
2015
Kent Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (KIASH) Major Conference Fund (CI, PI: Prof Amalia Arvaniti; £9,540)
2011–2012
Arts and Humanities Workshop Grant from the Royal Society of Edinburgh to run a series of events entitled ‘Rhythms in Scotland’ (CI, PI: Dr Rachel Smith; £9,000)
Editorial work
Journal of the International Phonetic Association (editorial board member)
Phonology and Phonetics series at De Gruyter Mouton (guest editor of a theme volume, with Felicitas Kleber)
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (guest editor of a theme issue, with Rachel Smith, Fred Cummins, Katie Overy and Sophie Scott)
Conference organisation
Musical Minds: Exploring cognitive links between language and music 2023 workshop (with Eline Smit)
British Association of Academic Phoneticians 2018 meeting (BAAP 2018, with Amalia Arvaniti and Angelos Lengeris)
Tone and Intonation in Europe 2016 conference (TIE2016, with Amalia Arvaniti)
International, interdisciplinary three-day conference Perspectives on Rhythm and Timing, University of Glasgow (PoRT, with Rachel Smith)
Interdisciplinary networking event for Scotland-based academics and practitioners Approaches to Rhythm and Timing in Scotland Today, Institute for Music in Human and Social Development, University of Edinburgh (ARTiST, with Katie Overy, Rebecca Schaeffer and Rachel Smith)
Peer reviewing
For journals: Acta Psychologica; Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences; Behavior Research Methods; Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics; Nature Communications Psychology; Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics; Journal of the International Phonetic Association; Journal of Experimental Child Psychology; Journal of Experimental Psychology; Journal of Phonetics; Journal of Acoustical Society of America; Journal of Acoustical Society of America – Express Letters; iScience; Frontiers in Psychology; Laboratory Phonology; Language Evolution; Language and Speech; Memory and Cognition; PLOS-ONE; Psychology of Music; Speech Communication; Studies in Second Language Acquisition
For conferences: British Association of Academic Phoneticians meetings; International Congress of Phonetic Sciences; Laboratory Phonology; Phonetics and Phonology in Europe; Speech Prosody
For publishers: Cambridge University Press
For funders: Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German Science Foundation (DFG), DAAD, Leverhulme Trust, Foundation for Polish Science (FNP), Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes
Public engagement
Interview with the German magazine ‘Spiegel’ about linguistic and cross-cultural features of political charisma, published in an article on 6 August 2024
Co-creator of ‘The Genius of Language’ event programme to disseminate academic knowledge among wider audiences (as part of the AHRC-funded ‘Being Human’ festival, Canterbury 2014)
Foreign language consultant for a small business Phonexis based in Northern Germany (www.phonexis.de)
Administration (University of Konstanz)
Speaker of the LingLab infrastructure, University of Konstanz (2026 – present)
Member of the educational board in the linguistics department (Studienkommission, 2020 – present)
Member of the PhD convent in the linguistics department (Promotionsausschuss, 2020 – present)
Equality and Diversity Representative for the Faculty of Humanities (2023 – present)
Lab director of Multi-Sensory (MuSe) Linguistics Lab (2021 – present)
Admissions Officer for MA English Linguistics (2020 – present)
External examiner on the BSc programme in Speech and Language Therapy at City University of London (2020–2021)
Administration (University of Kent)
Postgraduate Research (PGR) Director (2017 – 2020)
Pathway lead for Linguistics at the Doctoral Training Centre ‘South East Network for Social Sciences’ (2017 – 2020)
Recruitment champion (recruitment work during Open/Subject Days, lab demonstrations, taster seminars and lectures at Open/Subject Days)
Public relations and outreach officer of the Department of English Language and Linguistics (webpage maintenance; creation of Research pages; posts/updates on ELL Facebook page; organisation of outreach events/promotional materials)
Invited talks
Jan 2026
Does language hit the beat? Studying speech rhythm across prosodically diverse languages by means of sensorimotor synchronisation. Dahlem Lectures for Linguistics, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Dec 2025
Perceptual centres and why they matter. Research Colloquium in Cognitive Science, Universität Tübingen, Germany
June 2023
Individual variation is the wild. Phonetics and Phonology in Europe Conference 2023
June 2023
The role of an individual listener in prosody perception. UK-SK Prosody Research Network Workshop II: Prosody and Beyond. Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST), Seoul, South Korea
Feb 2020
Does language hit the beat? Studying linguistic rhythm by means of sensorimotor synchronisation. National Institute of Japanese Language and Linguistics, Tokyo, Japan
Jan 2020
Does language hit the beat? Studying linguistic rhythm by means of sensorimotor synchronisation. Kobe University, Japan
Dec 2019
Does language hit the beat? Studying linguistic rhythm by means of sensorimotor synchronisation. New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour, Christchurch, New Zealand
Nov 2019
From language to music and back. Plenary at the annual New Zealand Linguistics Society Conference, Christchurch, New Zealand
Oct 2019
Does language hit the beat? Studying linguistic rhythm by means of sensorimotor synchronisation. University of Sydney, Australia
Oct 2019
Facilitators of the “speech-to-song illusion”. MARCS Speech and Language meeting, Western Sydney University, Australia
Sept 2019
Does language hit the beat? Studying linguistic rhythm by means of sensorimotor synchronisation. CLaS Research Colloquium, Macquarie University of Sydney, Australia
Sept 2019
Does language hit the beat? Studying linguistic rhythm by means of sensorimotor synchronisation. MARCS Monday Meeting (MMM), Western Sydney University, Australia
Apr 2019
When language hits the beat: Moving to linguistic stimuli. Postgraduate Research Seminar, Institute of Phonetics and Speech Processing, Munich, Germany
Mar 2018
Speaking or Singing? On the origins of the “speech-to-song illusion”. Speech Science Forum, University College London
Mar 2017
Then, what is charisma? The role of audio-visual prosody in L1 and L2 political speeches. Research Seminar Series in Linguistics, University of Westminster
Nov 2016
Then, what is charisma? The role of audio-visual prosody in L1 and L2 political speeches. Glasgow University Laboratory of Phonetics
Nov 2016
Then, what is charisma? The role of audio-visual prosody in L1 and L2 political speeches. Discourse, Power, and Society Research & Reading Group, Canterbury Christ Church University
Jan 2016
Speaking or Singing? On the origins of the “speech-to-song illusion”. Linguistisches Kolloquium, Humboldt University of Berlin
Oct 2015
Speaking or Singing? On the origins of the “speech-to-song illusion”. Language and Linguistics Seminar Series, University of Brighton
Aug 2014
On the impact of noise on vowel formant measures. Special session “Methods in Vowel Analyses” at the 15th International Conference “Methods in Dialectology”, Groeningen (with Jane Stuart-Smith)
May 2014
On the role of segmental timing in intonational phonology of Russian (and other Slavonic languages). Special session “Prosody of Slavonic Languages” at the 7th International Conference on Speech Prosody, Dublin
Jun 2012
Getting our boots on: some preliminary findings from the Glasgow real-time project. LANCHART Research Centre, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Oct 2011
Timing in Accents of English. The Linguistics Department Seminar, University of Leeds, UK (with Rachel Smith)
Feb 2011
Disambiguation of negation scope by prosody in German. The Language Group Meetings, School of Psychology, University of Glasgow, UK
Jan 2011
Speech-To-Song Illusion: Effects of prosodic structure and listener musicality. The first Interdisciplinary Language in Glasgow Seminar. School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow, UK
Oct 2010
Timing in four accents of British English (given in German). Postgraduate Research Seminar, Institute of Phonetics and Speech Processing, Munich, Germany
May 2010
The Speech-To-Song Illusion Revisited. HASKINS Laboratories, New Haven, USA
Mar 2010
The Speech-To-Song Illusion. The Phonetics & Phonology Workshop, School of Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics, University of Edinburgh, UK
Feb 2010
Foot timing in two accents of English. The Phonetics and Phonology Workshop, School of Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics, University of Edinburgh, UK (with Rachel Smith)
Feb 2010
The Speech-To-Song Illusion. The Language Group Meetings, School of Psychology, University of Glasgow, UK
Conference talks (given since 2020)
Aug 2023
Timing of laughter in conversation: Better late than never? The 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Prague
July 2021
Timing in speech and music of contemporary Scottish composers. The 11th International Conference on Speech Prosody, Lisbon
July 2020
Is language rhythm in the ear of the beholder? A sensorimotor synchronisation approach to the cross-linguistic study of rhythm. Conference of Laboratory Phonology, Vancouver (virtual meeting)