Jeanne Heil

Jeanne Heil, PhD is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of Linguistics in the College of Science, Technology, and Health at the University of Southern Maine. Her research focuses on bilingualism, second language acquisition, and methodological innovations in code-switching studies. Previously, she served as a Researcher at the Bilingualism Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago (2008–2016) and taught at Eastern Mennonite University (2016–2017) and the University of Illinois at Chicago (2007–2016).

She holds a PhD in Hispanic Studies (Linguistics) from the University of Illinois at Chicago (2015). Her work bridges linguistic theory with empirical psycholinguistic methods, investigating topics such as adult second language acquisition, syntax in code-switching contexts, and attention mechanisms during language processing.

Heil’s publications address core questions in syntax, bilingualism, and experimental design, with recent work emphasizing multi-site replication studies and methodological rigor. She collaborates across institutions and has contributed to debates about syntactic theory and the role of evidence in language acquisition.

Professional service includes book proposal reviewing for Routledge and abstract reviewing for the Bilingualism Research Forum. She currently oversees the Linguistics Department at USM, maintaining active involvement in program development and faculty governance.