Rachel E. Weissler

Rachel E. Weissler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Oregon since 2023. She is affiliated with the College of Arts and Sciences and serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Linguistics and Interdisciplinary Cognitive Science. Additionally, she is a Black Studies affiliate faculty member, co-director of the Umoja Black Scholars Academic Residential Community, and faculty director of the Umoja Black Scholars Program.

• Education:
  • B.A., Bryn Mawr College
  • M.A. and Ph.D., University of Michigan

Her research focuses on raciolinguistic emotion perception, intersecting identities in linguistic perception, and African American English scholarship. She employs experimental methods from sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics to examine how communities and environments shape language-based identity perception. Recent article trends highlight multidialectal processing, emotional prosody, and linguistic discrimination in social justice contexts.

Dr. Weissler is committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion in research, teaching, and service. She engages in public scholarship through contributions to mainstream media outlets like The New York Times, Vice, and CNN. She co-leads academic residential programs and research initiatives centered on Black scholars and strategies.