This semester, we are starting a new spotlight series highlighting the accomplishments of our faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and alumni.
For our first graduate student spotlight, we are highlighting PhD Candidate Joshua Martin.
- What does your research focus on?
My research focuses on linguistic bias against African American Language (AAL) in automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems: where it comes from, how ASR performance is affected by it, and how we can mitigate it.
- What got you interested in this topic?
I came across this idea after contemplating the ways that linguistics illuminates systemic racism in ways that are often ignored and unaddressed by the larger public. Linguistic discrimination is one of the last bastions of publicly acceptable racism that sociolinguists have been attempting to highlight and fight for decades. At the same time, I was reading and hearing lots about racial bias in artificial intelligence in areas like facial recognition technologies and judicial sentencing algorithms. I wondered if there was an intersection between these two areas of study where the robust linguistic tools developed by (chiefly Black) linguists could be used to mitigate racial bias in emerging language technologies. From that intersection, the idea for this research was born.
- What led you to studying Linguistics here at UF?
Before I got into the program, I was an adjunct ESOL instructor and had been working 2-3 part time jobs for about 5 years to pay off my student loans. I was thoroughly burnt out and needed a serious break from teaching. I was living in Gainesville at the time and thought I’d give the Linguistics PhD at UF a shot. I applied and got in, and the rest is history!
- What is something you have enjoyed about the Linguistics graduate program here at UF?
I really love the professors and my fellow students. Everyone is really supportive and congenial. I have made some lifelong friends in this journey. I also appreciate the comradery amongst faculty. Sadly, many academic departments are toxic and polarized places. Our department seems to have avoided that, which makes it much nicer place to spend a good chunk of time.
- What advice would you have for people interested in graduate school?
Collaborate. If you’re working alone to do research and get publications out, it will take way longer to produce anything before you graduate. Collaborating on projects makes the process much less burdensome and lonely and helps the team produce more.
Try to figure out your research focus as soon as you can, and then tailor class projects around that topic. You can use final projects and papers as conference papers, the start of journal articles, or even part of your dissertation if you work it out right.
These are things I have failed at and wish I could go back in time and tell myself from the start.
- What do you enjoy outside of academia?
I enjoy eating good food (especially spicy!) with good friends. I’m a huge nerd, so I love Marvel, anime, sci-fi, fantasy, you name it. I’m also an aspiring political junkie, so I listen to lots of political podcasts and read articles and books on politics and policy.