Robert Xu

Biography

Robert Xu’s research interests lie in sociolinguistics, phonetics, and linguistic anthropology. His research addresses how variation in speech patterns reflects and shapes social relations and identities. His recent project focuses on the embodied linguistic styles of prominent social types in Beijing (e.g., Neighborhood Grandma), examining prosodic structures in social interactions and the dialogic nature of sociolinguistic styles. He has also conducted fieldwork in California, investigating how the change of the English sound system there relates to the region’s history and speakers’ life experiences.

Much of his research concerns speech prosody, which is the “musical” part of language (e.g., pitch, timing, and voice quality), for their dynamic and complex nature, and for their role in carrying multi-dimensional linguistic and social meanings.

Robert is an associate with the linguistics department at Harvard University, where he previously served as a lecturer before coming to Oberlin. He earned a PhD in linguistics at Stanford University, an MPhil in linguistics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a BA in humanities at Wuhan University.