Tanya Flores

Tanya Flores is an Associate Professor at the University of Utah in the Department of World Languages and Cultures. She has held this position since 2022 and was promoted from Assistant Professor (2014-2022). She also served as Associate Chair of her department from 2021 to 2024. Her research spans linguistics, phonetics, sociolinguistics, and bilingualism, with a focus on Hispanic communities, hard-of-hearing children, and language contact situations.

• PhD in Hispanic Linguistics from Indiana University (2014)
• MA in Spanish and Portuguese from Indiana University (2009)
• MA in Spanish Literature from University of Oregon (2003)

Her research explores phonetic variation in Spanish-speaking populations, including studies on Chilean radio speech, Japanese-Spanish bilinguals, and hard-of-hearing children. Key methodologies include acoustic analysis, speech accommodation studies, and longitudinal language development tracking. Her recent publications examine grammatical variation in Chilean Spanish and Peruvian speech patterns, while older works investigate code-switching and morphological adaptation in immigrant communities.

Notable scientific awards include the Utah Presidential Leadership Fellow (2022-2023), University Research Committee Faculty Fellow Award (2018), and federal Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need Fellowship (2013). She has secured grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the COH International Travel Program for bilingualism research in Spain.

Teaching activities include courses on Spanish phonetics, special topics in linguistics, and honors thesis supervision. Her grants and publications emphasize community-based research involving Latinx families of deaf/hard-of-hearing children and international collaborations studying language contact phenomena.