Dr. Nikki Swift is a senior academic at York St John University, where she is Associate Head of School: Languages and Linguistics. Nikki leads a team of 17 academic staff in a subject area teaching Linguistics, East Asian Languages and British Sign Language. She has over 20 years of experience teaching phonetics and phonology at English universities and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Nikki has a MA in Phonetics and Phonology and PhD from the University of York. Her research focuses on idiolectal vowel variation, using combined methods of close impressionistic transcription supported by acoustic analysis, specifically, how a person’s early geographical and social environment can leave a unique imprint on their vowel production. Her research sits within York St John’s Centre for Language and Social Justice, and she is also a member of the University of York’s BabyLab team and International Association of forensic Phonetics and Acoustics.