Jennifer Hay
Jennifer Bohun Hay is a New Zealand linguist who specialises in sociolinguistics, laboratory phonology, and the history of New Zealand English. As of 2020 she is a full professor at the University of Canterbury. Academic career. After an MA from Victoria University of Wellington, and PhD titled "Causes and Consequences of Word Structure" at Northwestern University in Illinois in 2000, Hay moved to the University of Canterbury, rising to full professor. Hay's research has revealed that a New Zealand dialect took only a single generation to emerge. She has explored how speech perception and production is influenced  by past experiences and current context, including environmental factors. Hay is the director of the New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour, a multi-disciplinary research centre based at the University of Canterbury. In 2017, Hay was featured in the Royal Society Te Apārangi's 150 women in 150 words project, celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand. Awards. Hay received a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship in 2011, a James Cook Research Fellowship in 2015, and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2015.