Mil{lie/dred} Hacker
East Lansing, Michigan
hackermi [at] msu [dot] edu
I'm a 1st-year PhD student in Linguistics at Michigan State University and an RA for the MI Diaries corpus project. I study phonological variation, with a current focus on intra-speaker variation and how/when/why narrative speech (story-telling) conditions the emergence of non-standard features. Fundamentally, I want to understand how the speaker's core phonological grammar interfaces with their social-functional considerations. My other main interest is in Optimality Theory, in which I've done some work on the relationship between reduction and deletion in Hixkaryana. Side interests include: hiatus resolution in Ojibwe, Harmonic Serialism, Comparative Markedness, language and gender, and phonological representation of acronyms.
Research
Presentations
Hacker, M. Narrative Style-Shifting in Self-Recorded Audio Diaries. Oral presentation at Southeastern Conference on Linguistics (SECOL 2026). 26 March 2026. [PDF]
Hacker, M. Hixkaryana Prefix Deletion is Gradual. Oral presentation at Penn Linguistics Conference (PLC 50). 1 March 2026. [PDF]
Hacker, M. The Gradual Deletion Hypothesis: Evidence from Nasality Agreement in Hixkaryana. Poster presentation at UC Santa Cruz Linguistics Undergraduate Research Conference (LURC). 7 June 2024. [PDF]
Papers
Hacker, M. Hixkaryana Prefix Deletion is Gradual. To appear in Penn Working Papers in Linguistics 33.1: Proceedings of PLC 50 (PWPL 33.1).
Normal person stuff
I'm from Northern California and attended UC Santa Cruz to study Linguistics and Environmental Studies. Outside my academic life, I like all kinds of visual arts, as well as running, hiking, biking (anything where I get to move my legs), baking, and gardening. I'm in the Spartan Housing Cooperative and serve on its board of directors (ask me about co-ops if you're interested in creating more sustainable ways of living.)
An ongoing passion project of mine is walking every road in East Lansing, which is what I've done in all the areas I've previously lived in. I want to become meaningfully familiar with every part of the area I inhabit. If you live in the area and like to go on little adventures, my inbox is always open ☺