Amy L. Hubbard

	Rank:		A.W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities
	Ph.D.		UCLA
	Department Member Since: 2010

Personal Statement
My research applies information and research techniques from neuroscience and applied linguistics to the examination of face-to-face communication. I received my Ph.D. from UCLA in 2009 in Applied Linguistics with a focus on the Neurobiology of Language Acquisition. Prior to that, I received my B. A. in East Asian Studies from Washington & Lee University and my M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language from Penn State University, taught ESL to children, undergraduate students, graduate students, and adults, and worked as a Japanese/English interpreter in both the US and Japan.

My dissertation work examined the neural bases of co-speech gesture processing in native and second-language English speakers as well as typically-developing children and children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. My mentors and collaborators in these investigations include Mirella Dapretto and John Schumann, my dissertation co-chairs, as well as Daniel Callan (ATR Institute International, Kyoto) and Stephen Wilson (The University of Arizona). Following my PhD, I received a Post-doctoral Fellowship from UCSD's Center for Research in Language. I am continuing ongoing collaboration with Karen Emmorey (SDSU) on the processing of co-speech gesture in bimodal bilinguals (i.e., individuals who speak both a spoken and signed language).

My research interests include the neural bases, behavioral understanding, and real world application of multimodal (embodied) communication, second language acquisition, speech prosody, and co-speech gesture. During my two-year A.W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities, I am continuing fMRI experimental work on co-speech gesture as well as beginning a line of behavioral experiments on the perception of co-speech gesture and speech prosody in first and second language English speakers. In addition to my experimental work, I am highly interested in how experimental findings from neuroscience, psychology, and applied linguistics can inform teaching strategies. While at Carnegie Mellon University, I am designing and teaching courses for graduate and upper division undergraduate students in the Department of Modern Languages.

Further information and recent papers can be found at http://amylynnhubbard.googlepages.com .

Currently taught/planned courses are:

• Neuroscience Foundations for Second Language Acquisition (Fall 2010)
• Face to Face: Embodiment and Multimodality in L1 and L2 Communication (Spring 2011)
• Neural Activity to Classroom Activity: Workshops for Language Teachers (Fall 2011).

Recent Work

• Hubbard, A.L., McNealy, K., Scott, A.A., Callan, D.E., Bookheimer, S.,Y., and Dapretto, M. (under review) Abnormal processing of co-speech gesture in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
• Hubbard, A.L., Wilson, S., Callan, D.E., and Dapretto, M. (2009) Giving Speech a Hand: Gesture Modulates Activity in Auditory Cortex During Speech Perception. Journal of Human Brain Mapping, 30, 1028-1037
• Hubbard, A.L. (2009) Giving speech a hand: fMRI of co-speech beat gesture processing in adult native English speakers, Japanese English as a second language speakers, typically-developing children, and children with autism spectrum disorder. Dissertation. University of California, Los Angeles.

For More Information
Amy L. Hubbard
Department of Modern Languages
Carnegie Mellon University
Baker Hall
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Office: BH 245Q
Phone: (412) 268-4215
Fax: (412) 268-1328