Curriculum Vitae
Mary Bary · citations as Akbary, M. · ma3228@nau.edu · updated August 2026
Education
PhD, Applied Linguistics — Northern Arizona University
Dissertation: Predicting Legal Language Comprehension: A Computational and Linguistic Analysis of Miranda Warning Difficulty. Methods: NLP-driven linguistic feature extraction, corpus analysis, predictive modeling, mixed-methods design. Supervisor: Prof. Scott Jarvis | Committee: Prof. Janet Ainsworth; Prof. Ed Finegan; Dr. Tove Larsson; Dr. Jesse Egbert.
MA, Linguistics — The University of Utah
Thesis: Elicited imitation as a measure of listening comprehension in the context of forensic linguistics.
MA, Teaching English as a Second/Foreign Language — Ferdowsi University
Thesis: The value of song lyrics for teaching and learning English phrasal verbs.
Peer-reviewed journal articles
- 2026 — Akbary, M. Sense-Tagging Legal Language: Corpus-Based Disambiguation in Jury Instructions. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law. DOI ↗
- 2026 — Jarvis, S. & Akbary, M. Sentence repetition, paraphrasing, and comprehension: Can you repeat a sentence without understanding it? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 1–35. DOI ↗
- 2024 — Benzaia, L., Jarvis, S., Akbary, M. & Park, L. Investigating the relationship between L2 proficiency and Miranda rights comprehension. International Journal of Speech, Language & the Law, 31(2), 291–327. DOI ↗
- 2023 — Akbary, M., Benzaia, L., Jarvis, S. & Park, L. Evaluating the utility of elicited imitation as a measure of listening comprehension in the context of forensic linguistics. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 2(3). Elsevier. DOI ↗
- 2023 — Akbary, M. & Jarvis, S. Lexical diversity as a predictor of genre in American TV shows. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 38(3), 921–936. Oxford University Press. DOI ↗
- 2019 — Omidian, T., Akbary, M. & Shahriari, H. Exploring factors contributing to the receptive and productive knowledge of phrasal verbs. WORD, 65(1), 1–24. DOI ↗
- 2016 — Akbary, M., Shahriari, H. & Hosseini Fatemi, A. The value of song lyrics for teaching and learning English phrasal verbs. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 1–13. DOI ↗
Manuscripts under review
- Kendro, K., Akbary, M., Grixoni, F., Egbert, J., Eggington, B. & Jarvis, S. (under review, Applied Linguistics). Linguistic challenges to comprehending and interpreting jury instructions.
- Grixoni, F., Akbary, M., Demir, Y., Egbert, J., Kendro, K. & Jarvis, S. (under review, IJSLL). Assessing the Comprehensibility of Jury Instructions: A Multi-Method Linguistic Approach.
- Benzaia, L., Jarvis, S., Christison, M. & Akbary, M. (under review, IJSLL). A Rights-Based Rubric for Assessing Miranda Comprehension.
In progress
- Akbary, M. & Jarvis, S. (in progress). Predictive Complexity Modeling of Miranda Warnings: A Large-Scale Statistical Analysis of Legal Comprehensibility.
- Akbary, M. (in progress). Mapping Phrasal Verb Distribution in Television Data: A Statistical Comparison of Genre-Specific Exposure.
- Akbary, M. & Plonsky, L. (in progress). Automatic Data Extraction in Meta-Analyses of L2 Research.
Research experience
Paid Research Assistant / Computational Language Data Analyst — MUJI Project (McKenzie Endowment for Democracy Grant), NAU
Large-scale corpus analysis; NLP feature extraction and annotation; quantitative and mixed methods to assess legal-text comprehensibility. PIs: Scott Jarvis, Jesse Egbert.
Computational Language Data Analyst & Annotator — LxGrTgr (Biber Tagger replication), NAU Corpus Club
Developed and validated NLP annotation pipelines; lexico-grammatical tagging for large-scale language modeling.
Automated Literature Screening — FReD (Replication Database) Project
API-based NLP pipeline automating identification of replication studies (Crossref, OpenAlex, OSF; GPT-4o abstract screening).
Computational Language Data Analyst — NAU Corpus Research Lab
Methods series on jury instructions.
Research Assistant — NAU Forensic Linguistics Lab
Expert Testimony Support — State of Washington v. Juan Trejo-Cruz
Language-proficiency analysis; collaboration with Prof. Scott Jarvis (Expert Witness for the Defense).
Paid Intern (Paralegal) — Bonner County Prosecutor’s Office, Idaho
Corpus/plain-language comprehensibility analysis of institutional guidelines; compliance auditing; trained legal staff in corpus methods.
Research Assistant — University of Utah, 'Conceptual Transfer and Eyewitness Testimony'
PI: Scott Jarvis.
Legal Translation — Certified Legal Translation Office, Mashhad
University teaching
Northern Arizona University
- Summer 2025 — Program in Intensive English (PIE), Instructor
- Summer 2025 — ENG 638-001 Assessment for Second Language Skills, Instructor of Record
- Summer 2024 — ENG 548 Fundamentals of Second Language Teaching, Instructor
- Spring 2024 — ENG 707 Seminar on Forensic Linguistics, TA
The University of Utah
- Summer 2023 — GLOBL 2230-001 Global Citizenship, Instructor
- Summer 2023 — GLOBL 910-001 English for Academic Purposes 1, Instructor
- Fall 2022 — LING 1200-002 Intro to the Study of Language, TA
- Spring 2022 / Fall 2021 — LING 3600-001 Cross-Cultural Communication, TA
- Summer 2021 — LING 3500-090 Intro English Grammar, Instructor
- Spring 2021 — ENGL 1200-001 Introduction to Study Language, TA
- Fall 2020 — EAS 1040-002 Grammar & Editing Nouns, Instructor
- Summer 2020 — LING 3500-090 Intro English Grammar, TA
Guest lectures
- Spring 2024 — ENG 707 Seminar on Forensic Linguistics, NAU: Elicited Imitation Test-Based Model for Predicting Miranda Warning Comprehension.
- Fall 2022 — LING 6150 Forensic Linguistics, University of Utah (3 sessions): Contract Interpretation with Corpus Linguistics; Corpus Linguistics and Plain Meaning; Introduction to Corpus Linguistics.
Conference presentations
- March 2026 — AAAL 2026, Chicago: Linguistic Predictors of Listening Comprehension (Akbary & Jarvis).
- March 2026 — AAAL 2026, Chicago: Testing the Comprehensibility of Jury Instructions (Grixoni, Akbary, Kendro, Egbert).
- Oct. 2025 - 10th Law & Corpus Linguistics Conf., Provo: Testing the Comprehensibility of Jury Instructions.
- Sep. 2025 - SLRF 2025, Flagstaff: Investigating Sentence Difficulty in L2 Elicited Imitation.
- March 2025 - AAAL 2025, Denver: Broad and Narrow Comprehension of the Miranda Warning.
- Oct. 2024 - 9th Law & Corpus Linguistics Conf., Provo: Improving the Comprehensibility of Jury Instructions.
- March 2024 - AAAL 2024, Houston: L2 proficiency and Miranda rights comprehension.
- March 2023 - AAAL 2023, Portland: Oral paraphrasing and elicited imitation as tests of listening comprehension.
- April 2022 - UUSCIL 2022, Salt Lake City: Decoding TV genres — a new classification model.
- July 2021 - Corpus Linguistics 2021, Limerick: Exploring lexical diversity in contemporary American television.
- March 2016 - LIF 2016, Istanbul: Phrasal verbs and selecting music for teaching English.
Scholarships & grants
- 2026 — Stoller–Grabe Jarvis (SGJ) Travel Award, NAU College of Arts and Letters
- 2026 — GSAAL Conference Award, NAU
- 2026 — Patricia Mapes Andersen English Scholarship (B), NAU
- 2025 — Patricia Mapes Andersen English Scholarship (A), NAU
- 2025 — Graduate Student Government Travel Award, NAU
- 2024 — Stoller–Grabe Jarvis (SGJ) Travel Award, NAU
- 2024 — Law & Corpus Linguistics Conference Travel Grant, BYU
- 2024 — GSAAL Conference Award, NAU
- 2023 — Graduate Student Travel Assistance, University of Utah
- 2023 — Law & Corpus Linguistics Conference Travel Grant, BYU
- 2023 — Departmental Conference Grant, AAAL 2023, University of Utah
- 2023 — University of Utah Graduate Fellowship
- 2022 — Departmental Conference Grant, AAAL 2022, University of Utah
- 2022 — Robert G. Hunter Graduate Fellowship, University of Utah
- 2021 — Departmental Conference Grant, Corpus Linguistics International Conference, University of Utah
- 2021 — Departmental Conference Grant, IAFL Conference, University of Utah
- 2020 — University of Utah Graduate Fellowship
Service & leadership
- Reviewer - Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching (2025); Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics (2025); SLRF 2025; Research Methods in Applied Linguistics (2024); Digital Scholarship in the Humanities (2024); AAAL (2023, 2024); NAU Undergraduate Symposium (2024).
- Mentor & Trainer - Language Learning Editorial Office, Wiley (2024–2025).
- Social Coordinator - GSAAL, NAU (2025–2026).
- Vice President - Linguistics Graduate Student Association (LINGSA), University of Utah (2021–2022).
- Organizing Committee - SLRF 2025 (Finances); UUSCIL 2022 (Abstract Feedback).
Certificates
- 2023 — TESOL Certificate
- 2022 — Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, University of Utah
Languages
Persian · Azeri · English · Turkish · Arabic · Tajik · Dari · Turkmen