Nicholas Bamshad Aoki

Nicholas Aoki - Headshot

PhD Candidate

Kerr 261
Office Hours
Please e-mail me for the current quarter's office hours!

About

I am a PhD candidate in Linguistics working at the Phonetics Lab with Dr. Georgia Zellou. My updated CV is available on my website.

I am passionate about teaching! Please click here to view some of my sample presentation slides and and here to read some sample evaluations.

During the 2022-2023 academic year, I was a co-chair of the Cluster on Language Research, which hosts biweekly talks and an annual conference. The theme of our conference was "The Intersection Between Language and Technology" – click here to access the program!

Education and Degree(s)
  • M.A., Digital Studies of Language, Culture, and History, University of Chicago, 2021
  • B.A., Linguistics (Minor in Statistics), University of Chicago, 2021 (Phi Beta Kappa, Student Marshal, Summa Cum Laude)
Honors and Awards
  • Graduate Student Travel Award ($500), UC Davis Department of Linguistics, 2025
  • Student Transportation Award ($150), Acoustical Society of America, 2025
  • Linguistic Society of America (LSA) Summer Institute Fellowship ($5668), UC Davis Department of Linguistics, 2025
  • Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award, UC Davis, 2025 [Nominee]
  • Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award, UC Davis, 2024 [Nominee]
  • Phi Kappa Phi, UC Davis, 2024
  • Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics Student Paper Competition Winner ($300), Acoustical Society of America, 2023
  • "Down Under Funder" Travel Grant ($1000), Acoustical Society of America, 2023
  • Steven Lapointe Award ($850), UC Davis Department of Linguistics, 2023
  • Student Award (£600), International Phonetic Association, 2023
  • Travel Award ($250), UC Davis Graduate Student Association, 2022
  • Graduate Research Mentorship Fellowship ($48,900), UC Davis, 2022-2023
  • Provost's Fellowship in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences ($59,802), UC Davis, 2021-2022
  • Latin Honors (summa cum laude), University of Chicago, 2021
  • Leonard Bloomfield Prize in Linguistics, University of Chicago, 2021
  • Phi Beta Kappa (Early Induction), University of Chicago, 2020
  • Student Marshal, University of Chicago, 2020
  • College Summer Research Fellow ($5,000), University of Chicago, 2020
  • College Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities Scholar ($5,000), University of Chicago, 2020
  • Jeff Metcalf Internship, University of Chicago, 2020
  • Dean's Fund for Undergraduate Research Award ($1,271), University of Chicago, 2019
  • Liew Family College Research Fellow ($1,000), University of Chicago, 2019
  • Dean's List, University of Chicago, 2017-2021
  • National Merit Scholar ($8,000), University of Chicago, 2017-2021
Courses
  • LIN 171 (Introduction to Psycholinguistics) – Teaching Assistant – Winter 2024, Spring 2025
  • LIN 103A (Linguistic Analysis I: Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology) – Teaching Assistant – Fall 2024, Winter 2026
  • LIN 001/001Y (Introduction to Linguistics) – Teaching Assistant – Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Summer Session I 2024, Summer Session II 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025, Fall 2025
Research Interests & Expertise
  • Phonetics/Phonology
  • Speech Perception
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Sociolinguistics
  • Human-Computer Interaction
Publications
  • Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. (2025). Apparent talker variability and speaking style similarity can enhance comprehension of novel L2-accented talkers. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309251390505
  • Maryam Bamshad, Karina Xie, Rema Rasheed, Kathryn Holt, Grace Assabil-Bentum, and Nicholas B. Aoki. Exposure to subtle dominance cues in asymmetric power relationships activates the stress response and affects decision-making. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1517308. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1517308
  • Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. (2025). When multiple talker exposure is necessary for cross-talker generalization: Insights into the emergence of sociolinguistic perception. Glossa Psycholinguistics, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.5070/g6011.21217
  • Julia Vonessen, Nicholas B. Aoki, Michelle Cohn, and Georgia Zellou. (2024). Comparing perception of L1 and L2 English by human listeners and machines: Effect of interlocutor adaptations. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 155(5), 3060 - 3070. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0025930
  • Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. (2024). Being clear about clear speech: Intelligibility of hard-of-hearing-directed, non-native-directed, and casual speech for L1- and L2-English listeners. Journal of Phonetics, 104, 101328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101328
  • Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. (2023). Visual information affects adaptation to novel talkers: ethnicity-specific and ethnicity-independent learning of L2-accented speech. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 154(4), 2290 - 2304. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0021289.
  • Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. (2023). When clear speech does not enhance memory: Effects of speaking style, voice naturalness, and listener age. Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, 51(1), 060002. https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001766.
  • Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. (2023). Speakers talk more clearly when they see an East Asian face: Effects of visual guise on speech production. In: Radek Skarnitzl & Jan Volín (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS) (pp. 2294 - 2298). Guarant International. Available at: https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/icphs-proceedings/ICPhS2023/full_papers/45.pdf
  • Nicholas B. Aoki, Michelle Cohn, and Georgia Zellou. (2022). The clear speech intelligibility benefit for text-to-speech voices: Effects of speaking style and visual guise. JASA Express Letters, 2(4), 045204. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0010274
Membership and Service
  • Co-Guest Editor – Special Issue on Phonetics of Human-AI Interaction, Phonetica (2025-, along with Georgia Zellou and Nicole Holliday)
  • Mentor – Hyunjin (Dylan) Lim (2025); Bayleigh Baldwin (2024-2025, co-mentor with Georgia Zellou); Lilly Vanhoy (2023)
  • Ad Hoc Journal Reviewer – Linguistics Vanguard (2026), Journal of Phonetics (2025), Speech Communication (2025) [n = 2], Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (2022 [co-reviewer with Georgia Zellou], 2024)
  • Conference Abstract Reviewer – California Meeting on Psycholinguistics (2025), Cluster on Language Research Symposium (2022-)
  • Website Manager – UC Davis Phonetics Lab (2024-), UC Davis Department of Linguistics (2023-2024) [Creator of Position]
  • Co-Chair – Cluster on Language Research (2022-2023)
  • Graduate Student Association Representative – Linguistics Graduate Student Association (2023-2024)
  • Member – California Meeting on Psycholinguistics Planning Committee (2025), Cluster on Language Research (2021-2022, 2023-), Graduate and Professional School Events Grant Review Board (2021-2022)
  • Tutor – Sacramento Public Library Adult Literacy Program (2022-2023)
  • Professional Memberships – Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Linguistic Society of America, Association for Laboratory Phonology, International Phonetic Association, Acoustical Society of America