Featured PhD Minor Graduate: Alexia Hernandez

Alexia Hernandez graduated this spring with a PhD in Linguistics, a Designation in Cognitive Science, and a PhD Minor in Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity. Through her doctoral research, Alexia synthesized insights across these fields to study linguistic bias. Specifically, she investigated different listeners' perceptions of, and implicit biases about, the speech of Miami-based Cuban Americans. She discovered that more experience with this Cuban American population allowed listeners to build up complex cognitive structures in their memories that ultimately reduced their biases and stereotyping, while less experience with the population resulted in shallow cognitive representations that led to more biased and stereotyped responses. 

Pursuing the CSRE PhD Minor inspired Alexia to continue her work supporting Hispanic communities throughout graduate school. While at Stanford, she traveled to Pescadero, CA, to translate parent teacher conferences and served as a Graduate-Scholar-in-Residence at El Centro Chicano y Latino. Back home in Vermont, she has connected migrant women to local employment opportunities and has been working to formalize an Inclusive Language Initiative for local businesses. In the fall, Alexia will pursue an MBA at The Wharton School to continue developing the ways to apply her research on linguistic bias.