Hi! My name is Lauren Bigelow (she/her) and I'm currently a PhD. Candidate in Linguistics at the University of Toronto. My main areas of research are sociolinguistics, stance analysis, and language and identity (namely rural vs. urban and gender). 

While my dissertation is only in its nascent stages, it'll focus on the language and identity of rural oriented individuals in Northern Ontario, building off of my previous two qualifying papers. Here are some the questions I'm interested in exploring through this project:

• What is rural (Northern Ontario) style?

• What are some of the innovative features of rural identity? 

• What do rural oriented individuals have to say about their own language practices/identity? 

• How do rural oriented individuals express their identity through stance work? How does this differ according to gender identity? And, 

• How are rural oriented features used alongside rural oriented stances? 

Through my time as a graduate student, I've obtained extensive teaching experience at the undergraduate level. I take pride in my teaching abilities and continuously strive to broaden my skillset.

 I've been trained and worked as a Lead Reading/English Language Learning TA in my linguistics department. You can learn more about what this position entails in my CV. I'm currently completing an Advanced University Teaching Certificate from the University of Toronto.

Outside of academia, I like to spend time outdoors and study Japanese. Some of my hobbies are baking, powerlifting, and knitting.