Dom Watt

I have also held temporary teaching positions at Leeds Metropolitan University, the University of Durham, and University College London. Between my degrees I worked in the University of Edinburgh's Department of Sociology and the Research Centre for Social Sciences on a series of research projects on technology and society, and assisted in the preparation of Donald Mackenzie's award-winning book Mechanizing Proof (MIT Press, 2001).

My main research interests are listed below. I would welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students in any of these areas.

• sociophonetics, particularly vowel variation, and the development of effective formant frequency normalization algorithms for sociophonetic applications. I have been working on the latter with Anne Fabricius (Roskilde), Tyler Kendall (Duke) and Daniel Ezra Johnson (now US Census Bureau).

• forensic phonetics: current projects include the compilation of a database of population statistics on the phonologies of varieties of urban Scottish English, and (with Carmen Llamas and Phil Harrison, JP French Associates) experimental work on the effects on speech acoustics and intelligibility of garments worn over the mouth or the entire face, such as surgical masks, balaclavas, or the niqaab veil worn by Muslim women. Both of these projects are funded by the International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics (IAFPA).

• phonological acquisition (L1 and L2): between 1998 and 2000 I was Research Associate/Fellow with Paul Foulkes and Gerry Docherty on the ESRC-funded project The Emergence of Structured Variation in the Speech of Tyneside Infants (R000237417). I am currently supervising a PhD on rhythmical properties of Mandarin Chinese-English interlanguage (Xinfeng Zhang).

• language and identity studies. I am Principal Investigator, with Carmen Llamas, Damien Hall, Jen Nycz (York) and Gerry Docherty (Newcastle), on the ESRC-funded AISEB (Accent and Identity on the Scottish/English Border) project, a three-year study of phonological variation in varieties of English spoken in four towns in Scottish/English border area.

Click here for a list of my publications.

• Economic & Social Research Council. Award: £481,843, 'Linguistic variation and national identities on the Scottish/English border' (AISEB; RES-062-23-0525). Principal investigator, with Carmen Llamas (York) and Gerry Docherty (Newcastle). 2008 - 11.
• Agence Nationale de la Recherche, France. Award: (share of) €48,170. 'Construction des connaissances langagières, diversité des usages, contextes sociolinguistiques'. Principal investigator Jean-Pierre Chevrot, Université Stendhal, Grenoble. Nominated UK participant, with Paul Foulkes (York), Gerry Docherty, Ghada Khattab (Newcastle), James Scobbie (Queen Margaret), Jennifer Smith (Glasgow). 2007 - 2010.
• International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics (IAFPA). Award: €2,200. 'Compilation of a Phonological Database of Contemporary Scottish English'. 2006 - 2008.
• International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics (IAFPA). Award: £1,210. 'Perception of speech produced by individuals wearing garments covering the face'. Principal investigator, with Carmen Llamas (York) and Philip Harrison (York/JP French Associates).

Professional bodies

• International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics
• British Association of Academic Phoneticians
• International Phonetic Association

Member of

• Research Committee of the International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics
• Editorial board, International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law

External examinerships

• MA in Linguistics, University of Edinburgh (2005-9)
• MA in Phonetics, University College London (2006-9)

Departmental activities

• Chair, Board of Examiners (Undergraduate)
• Member of Departmental Research Committee
• Media liaison