Sarah Frances Phillips

Sarah Frances Phillips is a Postdoctoral Fellow (Research Fellow) in the Department of Neurology at Georgetown University, working with Anna Greenwald in the GHUCCTS TL1/TBS program. Previously, she completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Georgetown Neuroscience of Language Program under Elissa Newport and Peter Turkeltaub. She earned her PhD in Linguistics from New York University in 2022 under Liina Pylkkänen's advisement and will join the University of Arizona as Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Cognitive Science, and Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) in Fall 2025.

Her research investigates language-specific (morpho-syntactic processing) and domain-general (attention, working memory) mechanisms in bilingual language processing, utilizing eye-tracking, MEG, MRI, and artificial language learning paradigms. She develops linguistically-inclusive neurobiological models with clinical applications, emphasizing how linguistic diversity reflects the global majority experience.

As a Blasian (Black and Korean-American) scholar, Dr. Phillips actively engages in public outreach about code-switching and language neurobiology with NYC at-risk youth. Her public scholarship includes NPR's Short Wave podcast appearances, contributions to the Talking Black in America Project documentary series, a JoySauce Op-Ed on assimilation costs, and a Scientific American Q&A.