Dr. Sreeparna Sarkar

Sreeparna is a lecturer of Hindi-Urdu and Bengali at the Department of South Asia Studies. A linguist at heart, her research interests lie in the production and perception of speech sounds of Indian languages, specifically Hindi and Bengali. Her most recent research investigates phonological issues related to the production and perception of the four-way stop contrast (commonly seen in South-Asian languages), with respect to Bengali. Her future research goals include but are not limited to understanding language change and language attitudes in heritage speakers of Indian languages and how they compare to native populations and investigating various phonological issues with regards to Indian languages.

She also is a professionally trained Indian classical dancer of the form Odissi and when she is not busy doing linguistic research, she practices her dance routines and occasionally volunteers to do stage performances at charity fundraisers, Indian cultural conventions, and international cultural festivals.