The Department of Romance and Classical Studies is very pleased to celebrate Spanish major Maddie Hannon, who won a first place award at the 2021 University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) for her research project titled “Inter-Dialectal Perception in Spanish”. The project, which is available to watch online, investigates speech perception between different Spanish dialects, and specifically the perception of a unique dialect from Argentina. Maddie’s research interests in general are phonology, speech perception, and language contact, with particular interest in language contact between Spanish and other Iberian languages such as Catalan.

During her time at Michigan State, Maddie has majord in Spanish with minors in Linguistics and Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems (SAFS). She has been an active member of the Phonology Group and the E-Board for the Spanish Club, where she serves as the Language and Discussion Facilitator, leading conversations and encouraging members to practice their Spanish. She also loves to participate in the weekly “Platicas” Spanish conversation hours. After graduation, Maddie plans to move to Valencia, Spain to teach English for a year and continue to improve her Spanish language skills. After returning to Michigan she plans to pursue a master’s degree and later a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics or a related field.

Congratulations to Maddie on the extraordinary achievement!