Halcyon Lawrence

Professor of technical communication

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Halcyon Lawrence (17 June 1970 – 29 October 2023) was a professor of technical communication, best known for her work on bias in speech recognition technology.

Lawrence was born and raised in Trinidad, where she earned a bachelor's degree from University of the West Indies at St. Augustine.[1] She worked as a technical trainer, and after 2004 or 5 also began adjuncting at UWI to teach technical writing.[2] In 2006, she decided to leave industry for academia, ultimately returning to university at Illinois Institute of Technology.[2] There, she earned an M.Sc. in Technical Communication and Information Design in 2010 and a Ph.D. in Technical Communication in 2013.[1] She was then a Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgia Tech.[3] In 2018, Lawrence became a professor at Towson University, where she reached the rank of associate professor.[2]

A primary focus of Lawrence's research was speech recognition technology, examining its history and its limitations. She was frequently cited as an expert on this topic.[4][5][6][7][8] She published a chapter, "Siri Disciplines," in the book Your Computer Is on Fire (2021),[9] which was excerpted in Engadget.[10] In this chapter, Lawrence argues that virtual assistants functionally discipline speakers into using a preferred, "standard" accent.[5]

While at Georgia Tech, Lawrence helped redesign and served as co-coordinator of a new program in computer science and technical communication.[3][11][2] Lawrence co-chaired the SIGDOC 2021 Conference with Liz Lane.[2] She won a 2022 CPTSC Research Grant to Promote Anti-racist Programs and Pedagogies.[12]

Lawrence died on October 29, 2023. In 2025, the journal Communication Design Quarterly published a collection of articles commemorating her impact.[13][14][15][16][17]

## References

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1. ^ a b "Halcyon Lawrence". Illinois Tech Magazine. 2022-12-14. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
2. ^ a b c d e "The Docs are In: Exploring the Intersection of Tech Comm and Academia with Dr. Liz Hutter and Dr. Halcyon Lawrence". RedMonk. 2023-07-25. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
3. ^ a b Burnett, Rebecca E.; Frazee, Andy; Girard, Amanda K.; Hutter, Liz; Lawrence, Halcyon; Menagarishvili, Olga (2022-12-14). "Sustainable Collaboration: A Co-taught, Client-based Course Sequence Integrating Computer Science and Technical Communication". Programmatic Perspectives. 13 (2): 11–51\. ISSN 2326-1412.
4. ^ Lloreda, Claudia Lopez. "Speech Recognition Tech Is Yet Another Example of Bias". Scientific American. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
5. ^ a b Rangarajan, Sinduja. "Hey Siri—why don't you understand more people who talk like me?". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
6. ^ Marsden, Rhodri (2021-11-07). "Accents and AI: how speech recognition software could lead to new forms of discrimination". The National. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
7. ^ Lopez-Lloreda, Claudia (October 2020). "How Speech-Recognition Software Discriminates against Minority Voices". Scientific American. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
8. ^ "Making Public | Say It Ain't So: A Simple Speech-To-Text Experiment With Serious Implications". networkcultures.org. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
9. ^ Usher, Nikki (2022). "Book Review: Your Computer Is on Fire, by Thomas S. Mullaney, Benjamin Peters, Mar Hicks, and Kavita Philip (Eds.)". Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. 99 (1): 334–336\. doi:10.1177/10776990211042592. ISSN 1077-6990.
10. ^ "Hitting the Books: Bias is behind AI assistants' failure to understand accents". Engadget. 2021-04-03. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
11. ^ Fitzpatrick, KellyAnn (2023-10-31). "In memory of Dr. Halcyon Lawrence". Sometimes Dragons. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
12. ^ "Winners for 2022 CPTSC Research Grant for Antiracist Programs and Pedagogies – CPTSC". Retrieved 2023-11-01.
13. ^ Dammeyer, Sarah (2025-01-23). "Special Section dedicated to Dr. Halcyon Lawrence: "Please Continue This Good Work!": A Letter to Dr. Halcyon Lawrence from a Brief Friend". Commun. Des. Q. Rev. 12 (2): 98–99\. doi:10.1145/3655727.3655737.
14. ^ Hutter, Liz (2025-01-23). "Honoring Dr. Halcyon Lawrence's Legacy in the Technical Communication Classroom". Commun. Des. Q. Rev. 12 (2): 100–101\. doi:10.1145/3655727.3655738.
15. ^ Mainaly, Shiva Hari (2025-01-23). "A Glimpse of Lawrence's Legacy: From "Siri Discipline" to Disciplining Artificial Intelligence". Commun. Des. Q. Rev. 12 (2): 102–104\. doi:10.1145/3655727.3655739.
16. ^ Neefe, Lauren (2025-01-23). "Dr. Halcyon Lawrence: A Resounding Legacy". Commun. Des. Q. Rev. 12 (2): 105–107\. doi:10.1145/3655727.3655740.
17. ^ Ojedele-Adejumo, Temitope (2025-01-23). "Dr. Halcyon Lawrence's "Siri Disciplines": Examining Accented English and Pedagogical Implications of Biased Technologies through an African Diasporic Lens". Commun. Des. Q. Rev. 12 (2): 108–110\. doi:10.1145/3655727.3655741.