Michelle Kamigaki-Baron

PhD Student


I'm a PhD student with Dr. Molly Babel in the Speech in Context Lab. I was born and raised in occupied Hawaiʻi and am an outspoken advocate for Pidgin (Hawai‘i Creole English), ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i (Hawaiian), and other creoles and indigenous languages with similar histories of marginalization due to colonial occupation. My research interests lie in the intersection between psycholinguistics, phonetics/phonology, sociolinguistics. My current research examines how regionally-associated visual primes influence speech perception for bilingual speakers of English and Pidgin. Outside of linguistics I enjoy outdoor activities, thrift stores, food, dance, music, and learning new languages.