Postdoctoral Fellows
Tamara Bodden
Postdoctoral Fellow
Email: tamara_janna_bodden@sfu.ca
Dr. Tamara Bodden has received a Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humbolt Foundation in Germany to come to SFU and work under the supervision of Dr. Maite Taboada. Bodden recently accepted a faculty position at the University of Koblenz.
Bodden will be studying a very topical issue: the toxicity of video game conversations, the type of commentary that happens along a live video gaming session on platforms like Twitch, the most popular video game streaming service. She plans to collect data under a careful study design and analyze it using some of the tools developed in Taboada’s Discourse Processing Lab.
Says Taboada, “Dr. Bodden’s is an innovative idea, with the potential for important applications in digital media studies and content moderation, currently one of the most important topics in internet discourse. Dr. Bodden’s expertise in digital communication will be an asset to my lab, where trainees will benefit from her international perspective and her background in cultural studies.”
Kaili Vesik
Postdoctoral Fellow
Email: kaili_vesik@sfu.ca
Dr. Kaili Vesik has been awarded a two-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellowship. Her project is titled Leveraging computational models to predict challenges and successes in human second language acquisition. Vesik will be working with Ashley Farris-Trimble at the Phonological Processing Lab.
Vesik's research interests include computational phonology, mathematics, typology and learnability of vowel patterns in Finnic languages. You can read her dissertation here: Gradual error-driven learning and typology of Finnic vowel interactions.
“I’m Kaili Vesik, a computational phonologist having recently completed my PhD in the Linguistics department at the University of British Columbia. I have a background in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Education, and my current focus is on typology and learnability of vowel patterns in Finnic languages. I defended my dissertation in June 2025. My extracurricular interests include sewing, reading, singing, dancing, running, hiking, and skiing. Curious about how to pronounce my name? You’ve got two options! I introduce myself to Estonian speakers as [kɑili vesik] and to English speakers as [kʰaɪli vɛsɪk].”