Linguistics Careercast

This episode is an audio version of a virtual panel held at the Linguistics Career Launch in the summer of 2024, titled “Societal Impacts and the Ethical Use of AI”. The moderator is Aubrie Amstutz, and the two panelists are Patricia McDonough and Alfonso Sánchez-Moya. In this session the panelists reflect on the ethical impacts of AI and how qualitative researchers and linguists alike can address these issues in tech industries. We explore and recognize how linguistics is an integral component of the human evaluation of AI.

Aubrie Amstutz on LinkedIn Patricia McDonough on LinkedIn Alfonso Sánchez...

Live Linguistics Careercast coming your way on August 16! Join us for part two of our conversation on GenAI and linguistics, this time focusing on Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna, Ph.D.’s recent book “The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want.” And we’ll follow the taping with a networking event in Gather!

Host Laurel Sutton will be joined again by Alicia Beckford Wassink, Katie Swindler, and Aubrie Amstutz to continue the conversation from our live episode at LingFest25, which we released as a podcast on April 22, 2025.

The...

“Software makes me money, but linguistics makes me happy”

Logan Kearsley is an experienced software engineer with a history in the education, solar power, and entertainment industries. He earned a BS in Computer Science and an MA in Linguistics, both from Brigham Young University, and is currently employed as a software engineer at Idaho National Laboratory. He blogs about conlangs and xenolinguistics, and he has a YouTube channel where he reads Beowulf.

Logan Kearsley on LinkedIn

Logan Kearsley’s blog

Logan Kearsley on YouTube (Daily Beowulf)

A Hybrid Approach to Cro...

This episode is an audio version of a virtual panel held at the Linguistics Career Launch in the summer of 2024, titled “Content Creation – A Path to Alternative Careers”. The presenter is Erin Kuester, who has a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from Ohio University, and is a copywriter and content creator for women and queer-owned businesses.

This workshop presents content creation and social media usage as skills, and how these skills can be leveraged as an alternative career or to boost an alternative career. This is especially useful for anyone who is interested in starting their own busi...

“I’m happy for the winding path that took me to this work”

Kathryn Hymes is a technologist and computational linguist, currently serving as a director of product and innovation at Doctors Without Borders. Previously, she worked in leadership positions at multiple technology firms, most recently as the head of international product expansion at Slack and an advisor at Airtable. She holds an MS in computational and mathematical engineering and an MA in linguistics, both from Stanford. Her writing on language and technology has appeared in the Atlantic, Wired, and the New York Times. Kathryn is also a co-f...

“If you understand why you’re making a career move, then don’t worry about explaining it”

Tim Durgin (杜腾飞) is an ATA-certified Chinese-to-English linguist, translator, and analyst based in the Washington DC area. His primary focus is on written translation in several key domains, including video games, politics, national security, and contracts. Beyond his freelance endeavors, Tim has contributed to teams at NetEase, Amazon, Google, and R2Games. He holds a Master’s in East Asian Studies, and he is passionate about video games.

Tim Durgin on LinkedIn

Topics include:

– LSPs – transl...

“The buzz in LLMs now is all about training data”

Andy Edmonds has an MS in Human Factors, Applied Psychology from Clemson University. He started his working career as a webmaster in 1995 and has since developed a huge breadth of expertise in UX, e-commerce, web analytics, online experimentation, data science, information retrieval, and software development methods at tech companies including Microsoft, eBay, RedBubble, Adobe, Facebook, and LinkedIn. He is now a product manager at Quora. He also holds nine patents.

Andy Edmonds on LinkedIn

Tabtopia on Github

Anthropic blog

Topi...

“I love the process of directing voice actors – and I never would have found out about it without the internet”

Colette Feehan is an audiobook director with a PhD in linguistics who specializes in multi-language books, books with technical jargon, and multi-book series that require maintaining a strong pronunciation database. Colette’s doctoral research focused on the intersection of articulatory and acoustic phonetics and vocal performance specific to character voiceover – using ultrasound to look at how actors move the parts of their vocal tract around to make different voices.

Colette Feehan on LinkedIn

Colette Fe...

Linguists at Work!

This is a special mini-podcast of the Linguistics Careercast called Linguists at Work. It’s a series of 5-minute interviews with career linguists, conducted by grad students in the Georgetown Linguistics program, in which they ask the question: “What’s your job and how did you get it?” Every interview focuses on a job that a linguist not only can do, but adds value to based on the unique skillset we develop as language scientists.

Today’s pod features Lexi Slome, who is an associate trial consultant. She earned her Ph.D. in Linguis...

“In tech, I feel like I’m giving a sociolinguistics 101 course once a month”

This episode is a recording of a special live episode of the Linguistics Careercast podcast.

Our panel of linguists discusses how artificial intelligence (especially Gen AI) is impacting linguistics as a field. We’ll cover topics like AI bias, challenges in training data curation, and implications of GenAI on online language data collection. These are conversations that linguists are having behind the scenes about the future of this changing technical landscape.

The panel was held on April 12, 2025, during LingFest, a part o...

“Conversation designer jobs are inherently collaborative”

Jyoti Iyer earned her PhD in linguistics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Since then she’s made the journey from theoretical linguistics to expertise in customer-facing language experiences.  She is currently employed as a conversation designer, working at the interface between customer-focused experience design and enterprise AI, and focused on LLM-powered chat: guardrails, analytics and metrics, and API integrations. She’s also an LCL alum!

Jyoti Iyer on LinkedIn

Jyoti Iyer’s website

Topics include:

– theoretical linguistics – teaching – semantics – conversation design – networking – human computer interact...

This episode is titled “Jobs in Tech for Qualitative Researchers and Social Scientists”. Our moderator, Alfonso Sánchez-Moya, guides a discussion with panelists Lex Konnelly and Jyoti Iyer on how backgrounds in linguistics and social sciences can shape innovation and drive meaningful change in tech companies. In this session, you’ll learn how to utilize skills and expertise in analysis, critical thinking, and understanding human behavior to impact tech and technology. And there’s practical advice on breaking into these fields and advancing your career in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.

The video of this presentation is available...

This episode is titled “Re-Finding Your Career Path”. Our three panelists, Nancy Frishberg, Emily Pace, and Laurel Sutton share stories of their careers and the decision points that led them to their current situations. This panel emphasizes the importance of always considering your next steps and career goals as you encounter unpredictability and many unknowns throughout your life. You’ll hear candid reflections about what our panelists’ paths look like, what worked best for them, and how you can propel your own career forward.

The video of this presentation is available at the Linguistics Career Launch YouTube channel...

This episode is titled “The New Role of Faculty – Advising Linguistics Students”. Did you know that a draft-eligible baseball player has better odds of playing Major League Baseball than a new linguistics PhD has of getting a tenure-line job? In this session, panelists Alex Johnston and Sue Steele review the real data on academic employment outcomes, and the other opportunities (beyond academia) that are available to linguistics graduates. This presentation is aimed at linguistics faculty, but will be relevant to students and advisors too!

The video of this presentation is available at the Linguistics Career Launch YouTube channe...

This episode is titled “Salary and Benefits: Negotiate Like a Pro”. The presenter is Alex Johnston, who is Director, Master’s Programs & Career Management in the Georgetown University Dept. of Linguistics. In this presentation, you will learn how to prepare for the negotiation stage and the proper etiquette to request what you need, as well as how to respond to tricky questions from employers regarding salary expectations. You’ll also find out how to research the typical salary range for the job, how to investigate the company’s compensation history, how to avoid stating your salary expectations too early, and how to...

“The pairing of linguistics and law makes a lot of sense”

Marta Baffy is a lawyer and linguist who has over a decade of English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching experience both in the United States and abroad. She received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from Georgetown University and her JD from the Cardozo School of Law. Her research focuses on the discourse processes underlying law students’ socialization to law school and the legal profession, as well as discourse analysis of interactions in the courtroom and congressional hearings. Marta’s current position is Professor of the Practice...

This episode is an audio version of a virtual panel held at the Linguistics Career Launch in the summer of 2024, titled “Leveraging LinkedIn: Creating your Profile and Using LinkedIn as a Research Database”. The presenter is Alex Johnston, who is Director, Master’s Programs & Career Management in the Georgetown University Dept. of Linguistics. In this workshop, you’ll learn not only how to optimize your own LinkedIn profile, but also how to leverage LinkedIn as a research tool in service of your career development. Consider this online platform to be the world’s largest database of resumes and exemplar language f...

“You need to have a heart of service to do this work”

Carole Chaski is a forensic linguist who is considered one of the leading experts in the field. Her research has led to improvements in the methodology and reliability of computational linguistics and inspired research on the use of this approach for authorship identification. She has provided expert testimony in several federal and state court cases in the United States and Canada. She is president of ALIAS Technology and executive director of the Institute for Linguistic Evidence, a non-profit research organization devoted to linguistic evidence.

Ca...

This episode is an audio version of a virtual panel held at the Linguistics Career Launch in the summer of 2024, titled “Informational Interviews”. The presenter is Alex Johnston, who is Director, Master’s Programs & Career Management in the Georgetown University Dept. of Linguistics. Informational interviewing is the key way to learn about jobs of interest, what jobs might be a good fit (or not!), and finding out “what’s out there” beyond the information available on the internet. It’s an effective research tool, but it’s important to do it right. In this presentation, you can learn how to use your rese...

“In customer research, if there is any group that’s capacitated to just go out and talk to people, it’s linguists”

Mary-Caitlyn Valentinsson earned her Ph.D. in anthropology and linguistics in a joint program from the University of Arizona in 2019. Her dissertation research was on fandoms – the way communities engage with pop culture. After finishing her doctoral degree, she taught at Appalachian State University for three years. In August 2022, she took a position with Universal Parks and Resorts in Orlando, Florida, where she works as a manager of ethnographic research.

Mary-Caitlyn Valentinsson on LinkedIn<...

This episode is an audio version of a virtual panel held at the Linguistics Career Launch in the summer of 2024, titled “Creating and Tailoring an Effective Resume”. The presenter is Alex Johnston, who is Director, Master’s Programs & Career Management in the Georgetown University Dept. of Linguistics. In this presentation, Alex will answer the following questions: How do I “convert” my academic, student or volunteer experiences into a professional resume? What experience do I even HAVE? (More than you think!) How do I showcase those experiences on my resume so it has a better chance of passing through the Applicant...

This episode is an audio version of a virtual panel held at the Linguistics Career Launch in the summer of 2024, titled “Networking for Introverts”. The presenter is Alex Johnston, who is Director, Master’s Programs & Career Management in the Georgetown University Dept. of Linguistics. In this presentation, she’ll talk about on-ramps to career conversations, how small talk isn’t ‘small’, and how to make networking work with your personality and preferences. She’ll also model small risks you can take in our supportive environment that you can carry forward during our boot camp and beyond. The goal here is to reframe ne...

“Are you competent? And are you someone I want to work with? You need to be both”

Christopher Farina holds a doctorate in linguistics from the University of South Carolina. He has over 10 years of experience across a wide range of functions in qualitative and quantitative research in applied linguistics and in the social sciences. He is currently Associate Director, Listening & Linguistics, at InVibe Labs, a voice research company that works with healthcare organizations.

Christopher Farina on LinkedIn

Harry Frankfurt, On Bullshit

Topics include

– historical linguistics – pre-med – business writing – discourse an...

“Linguists make the best everything”

Minnie Quartey is Vice President of Impact & Innovation for Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington. She earned her PhD in linguistics at Georgetown University and embarked on a career working in the non-profit organization management industry. Her research has been featured on the front page of the Washington Post, she has been a guest on NPR, and she was the primary field researcher for the first publicly accessible Corpus of Regional African American Language (CORAAL) funded by the National Science Foundation.

Minnie Quartey on LinkedIn

Minnie’s LCL21 panels...

“I’d like to see anthropology become a household word again”

Elizabeth Briody is an anthropologist who has been involved in cultural-change efforts for over 30 years – first at General Motors Research and later through her own consulting practice, Cultural Keys. She has led many career initiatives including an analysis of AAA Mentoring programs, numerous career webinars, and the Career Tools for Anthropology Workbook, just published by the Anthropology Career Readiness Network, of which she is one of the founders.

Elizabeth Briody on LinkedIn

Cultural Keys LLC

Anthropology Career Readiness Network

Career...

“Linguistics has a marketing problem”

Andrea Berez-Kroeker is the Linguistics Department Chair at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and an At-Large member of the LSA’s Executive Committee. She is primarily a documentary linguist specializing endangered language preservation.

Andrea Berez-Kroeker on LinkedIn

Andrea Berez-Kroeker’s website

Kaipuleohone, University of Hawai’i’s Digital Language Archive

Brendan Regan is an Assistant Professor of Spanish & Linguistics at Texas Tech University and the Director of the Sociolinguistics & Bilingualism Research Lab. He is a mixed-methods (quantitative and qualitative) researcher.

“Build relationships with your coworkers – you don’t have to be friends with them”

Taylor Melton is a linguist and educator with over 15 years of international experience in teaching, language consulting, and data-driven research. She earned her Master’s in Linguistics from National Taiwan Normal University, as well as attending Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Atlanta, Georgia. Her career has included lecturing at Overseas Chinese University in Taiwan, crafting tailored language programs for corporate clients in Germany, and writing freelance for culture magazines. She is currently writing an Introduction to Linguistics textbook for undergraduate students.<...

“Go work with people in legal fields because they are the ones working on language access”

Serena Williams received her PhD from UC Davis. She is a linguistic entrepreneur who leads walking tours, does genealogy research, is writing a textbook, developing K-12 linguistics courses, and is even writing a memoir about her time spent doing van life with her daughter while teaching her lessons tailored to the places they were visiting. She founded both the Language and Heritage Institute and Chronos Heritage Services.

Serena Williams on LinkedIn

Chronos Heritage Services

Language and...

This is just a reminder that Linguistics Career Launch 2024 is happening SOON – July 15-26, 2024. If you’re a linguist looking for a job outside academia, LCL24 is THE two-week event that will jump start your career journey. LCL events are open to undergraduate and graduate students, post-docs, faculty, and alums — in short, any linguists who want to transition from academia to industry.

There will be workshops, panels, interviews, and even financial planning sessions! Here’s a selection of what’s on offer:

“Be open to doing things that are not what you studied in school”

Peter Benson received his PhD in linguistics from UC San Diego in 1973, in addition to studying neuroscience, neuropsychology, and computer science. He’s worked on speech recognition, user interface, and artificial intelligence. He had a long career in aerospace communications, while navigating life as a single parent. He is now retired and pursuing a life of gardening, woodworking, philosophy, and crossword puzzles.

Peter Benson on LinkedIn

Dialect Identification (Peter Benson, co-author), research for the Air Force Research Laboratory

Topics...

This is just a reminder that Linguistics Career Launch 2024 is happening SOON – July 15-26, 2024. If you’re a linguist looking for a job outside academia, LCL24 is THE two-week event that will jump start your career journey. LCL events are open to undergraduate and graduate students, post-docs, faculty, and alums — in short, any linguists who want to transition from academia to industry.

There will be workshops, panels, interviews, and even financial planning sessions! Here’s a selection of what’s on offer:

“It was a wake-up call – my marriage is more important to me than that job”

Emily Pace has a breadth of experience across the non-profit, public, and private sectors, including at several technology companies, the National Association of Attorneys General, the Close Up Foundation, and the Library of Congress. She was one of the leaders of Linguistics Career Launch 2021 and is now heading up Linguistics Career Launch 2024. Emily holds a B.A. in French and Arabic and an M.S. in Theoretical Linguistics, both from Georgetown University, as well as certificates from the Paris Chamber of Commerce and th...

“Linguistics has given me frameworks to build my career on, and to get wildly creative within those frameworks”

Alexandra Botti is a radio and podcast producer, sociolinguist, ballet dancer and ballet teacher. She is a dual citizen of the United States and France, and grew up primarily in the Boston area; she holds a Master’s degree in Language and Communication from Georgetown University. After embarking on a career in journalism, she worked for multiple media outlets including WAMU, WNYC Radio, and NPR. She is currently employed as a supervising producer at Axios.

Alex Botti on Lin...

“There are many pathways to the solution to climate change, and that means more jobs for linguists”

Jackson Kuzmik was born and raised in Hong Kong and received his Master’s in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics from the University of Cambridge in England. Alongside various research positions, he has worked in outreach for an environmental research center, as a product management intern at a language-technology startup, and as the Head Mentor for his undergraduate department. He is currently working in the cleantech/climate space at Carbon Limiting Technologies in London, a specialist consultancy for scaling key climate innova...

“Language is the code that cracks open access to people in the world”

Emily Sabo is a writer and data analyst who specializes in scientific communication, applied research, and digital content creation. While she was earning her PhD at University of Michigan, she traveled around South America, Europe & Asia researching how languages are processed in the bilingual brain. In her industry career, she’s written and produced YouTube videos and podcasts for a language learning app. She’s also had experience in standup comedy, and gave a TEDx talk on the power of language.

Emily Sabo on...

“Passion doesn’t always have to be the thing that pays you”

Emily Gref has been a bookseller, copy editor, literary agent, and, most recently, an exhibit content manager for the Planet Word museum in Washington, DC. She received her BA in linguistics from McGill University and an MA in Language Documentation and Description from SOAS, University of London, where she began creating books and resources for minority language communities. Her current position is as a Project Manager at Dragonfly Editorial.

Emily Gref on LinkedIn

Emily Gref’s website

Planet Word in Washi...

“We all end up training ourselves throughout our careers”

Brad Davidson is a linguist and medical anthropologist with extensive experience in marketing, positioning, branding, and overall customer and patient provider experience. He received his PhD in Linguistics from Stanford University and worked as a professional namer, before moving into life sciences and healthcare marketing. He’s currently employed as the SVP of Medical Anthropology at Havas Health, and hosts the podcast Breaking the Code.

Content warning – there are some swears, and discussions of medical conditions and treatments.

Brad Davidson on LinkedIn

Breaking...

“It feels weird to say I’ve ‘just’ been working”

Dmitry Tereshenko is a neurodivergent, first-generation college graduate who earned his Master’s degree in the MLC program at Georgetown. His work has explored human-human and human-computer interaction (HCI), specializing in the intersection of how digital technologies mediate our communication in virtual spaces. In his employment, Dmitry has variously labelled himsels as a language specialist, discourse analyst, language engineer, and language technologist. He is currently employed as a Generative AI Strategist and Conversational Interface Developer at Deloitte Consulting.

Dmitry Tereshenko on LinkedIn

Dmitry Tereshenko’s...

“Networking is mutual aid.”

Daniel Ginsberg is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the American Anthropological Association, where they bring their knowledge of association management and organizational anthropology to help association leaders understand the culture of the AAA community and create new pathways into active, engaged membership. For the previous four years as Director of Education and Professional Practice, they oversaw the AAA’s professional development and public outreach efforts, including nonformal education such as internships, workshops and mentoring, as well as informal education such as career development resources, youth outreach and webinars. They have taught as an adj...

“Where in your body do you feel a ‘yes’?”

Aubrie Amstutz is a cognitive linguist & researcher working towards AI Fairness. She earned a Master’s in Linguistics and Cognitive Science at University of Siena in Italy. She is interested in using empirical linguistic research to dispel language myths. This has taken the form of promoting anti-accent stigma in second language development at Duolingo, exploring the downfalls of prescriptive grammar rules in foreign language learning guides, conducting research into anti-bias and discrimination in AI-powered language systems at Microsoft Research, and most recently in guiding product policy decisions and developing...