Jennifer Cabrelli

Jennifer Cabrelli is an Associate Professor in the Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where she also serves as Director of the Multilingual Phonology Lab and Director of Undergraduate Studies for Spanish. Her research focuses on phonological and morphosyntactic acquisition in multilingual speakers, particularly in second, third, and heritage language contexts.

Her research interests lie at the intersection of phonology, bilingualism, and language acquisition. Using experimental methods such as speech production and perception tasks, she investigates how linguistic knowledge is organized in the multilingual mind. Her work emphasizes quantitative analysis and cross-linguistic influence, especially in Spanish and Portuguese contexts.

The recent publications reflect a strong focus on transfer phenomena in multilingual acquisition, particularly how L1, L2, and L3 systems interact phonologically and morphosyntactically. Key themes include clitic placement, stop lenition, code-switching, and phonotactic restructuring, with methodologies rooted in psycholinguistics and experimental phonetics.

Scientific Awards:

• Graduate Mentoring Award, UIC Graduate College (2018-2019)
• Teaching Recognition Program Award, UIC Office of the Provost (2018-2019)
• Grant Support Program, UIC Office of Social Science Research Education (2017-2018)

Advising and Grants: Dr. Cabrelli has served as PI and co-PI on multiple NSF-funded doctoral research improvement grants, supporting graduate research in bilingual phonology. She is actively involved in mentoring students and shaping the next generation of scholars in applied linguistics. Her editorial roles in journals such as Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism and Hispania reflect her leadership in the field.

Labs and Teams: She directs the Multilingual Phonology Laboratory at UIC, a research space dedicated to experimental studies on phonological acquisition and bilingualism. She collaborates with researchers across institutions on projects involving heritage speakers, L3 acquisition, and cross-linguistic influence.