Deanna Sharpe

Fulbright/University of York Award

Deanna Sharpe, from Lithonia, GA, is an incoming Fulbright Postgraduate Awardee at the University of York and an Emory University alumna. Her general research interests lie at the intersections of acoustics, language acquisition, cyberviolence, language variation, ethics, sociophonetics, injury and violence prevention, speech-language pathology, speech and debate, and sociolinguistics.

Over the course of the year, she will pursue an MSc in Forensic Speech Science and complete a dissertation exploring digital aggression from a sociophonetic lens. In other words, she plans to investigate cases of harassment in auditory digital interactions and use software to pinpoint speech characteristics of online harassers, helping to delineate clear speech criteria for content moderation. She also plans to advance her quantitative and technical skills through this programme and looks forward to connecting with the York community through continued interfaith work, research, and volunteering.

Beyond her academic work, she is excited to join societies, visit markets, attend local and international conferences, try new cuisines, explore bookshops, conduct interdisciplinary research, and truly immerse herself in this cross-cultural experience.