Resume
Resume
Embedded Files
I am a computational linguist specializing in natural language processing, LLM interpretability, syntax, and statistical analysis of LLM training data and outputs. My research focuses on domain-specific linguistic knowledge tailored for the optimization of data and language models, as well as LLM interpretability research.
I am a computational linguist specializing in natural language processing, LLM interpretability, syntax, and statistical analysis of LLM training data and outputs. My research focuses on domain-specific linguistic knowledge tailored for the optimization of data and language models, as well as LLM interpretability research.
Education
Education
University of Southern California
PhD in Linguistics 2026
MA in Linguistics 2023
Arizona State University
MA in Linguistics & Applied Linguistics 2021
BA in East Asian Studies (Chinese) 2019 summa cum laudeBA in English (Linguistics) 2019 summa cum laude
Publications & Presentations
Publications & Presentations
2026
"Miss Universal Grammar: Pretraining BabyLMs with Linguistic and Non-Linguistic Sources" [Co-1st author]
•BabyLM Challenge AT EMNLP 2026
ORAL PRESENTATION—WINNER FOR MOST ORIGINAL SUBMISSION
2025
"Evidence of Generative Syntax in Large Language Models" [1st author]
•COMPUTATIONAL NATURAL LANGUAGE LEARNING (CONLL) AT ACL
ORAL PRESENTATION
"Evidence of Hierarchically-Complex Syntactic Structure in BERT's Word Representations" [1st author]
•SOCIETY FOR COMPUTATION IN LINGUISTICS (SCIL) AT UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
POSTER
2024
"Effects of external causatives on the processing of alternating unaccusatives" [1st author]
•CALIFORNIA MEETING ON PSYCHOLINGUISTICS (CAMP) AT STANFORD
ORAL PRESENTATION
•ARCHITECTURES & MECHANISMS FOR LANGUAGE PROCESSING (AMLAP)
POSTER [ACCEPTED]
2020
"A diachronic proposal of Xi'an Mandarin using synchronic data" [1st author]
•26TH ANNUAL GRADUATE LINGUISTICS, APPLIED LINGUISTICS, & TESOL SYMPOSIUM
ORAL PRESENTATION
Experiences
Experiences
Disney Research [2024]
Summer Research Lab Associate Intern
Manager: Erika Varis Dogget
Teaching Assistant [2021–Present]
Human Language & Technology
Professor: Khalil Iskarous
Human Language as Computation
Professor: Khalil Iskarous
Language & Society
Professor: Andrew Simpson
Awards & Honors
Awards & Honors
Most Original BabyLM Challenge Submission
Awarded 2026
CoNLL Outstanding Reviewer
Recognized 2026
USC Linguistics Research Development Award
Awarded 2026
USC Graduate School Travel Award
Awarded 2025
Center for Computational Language Sciences Seed Funding Awardee
Awarded 2024
Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award
Awarded 2024
USC Diversity, Inclusion, & Access Fellowship
Awarded 2021–Present
US Dept. of Edu. Foreign Areas & Language Studies Fellowship
Awarded 2019–2021
Full Resume [Updated 10/2026]
Full Resume [Updated 10/2026]
Attached below is a PDF of my full resume. Please feel free to email me if you are interested in my work!
Kennedy Resume (October 2026).pdfPage updated
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