TEENIE MATLOCK is Professor Emerita of Cognitive Science at University of California, Merced, where she was also the Vice Provost for Academic Personnel and McClatchy Chair in Communications. Prior to joining UC Merced as a founding faculty member in 2004, she completed her PhD at University of California, Santa Cruz, and did postdoctoral training at Stanford University. She has also taught courses at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego, and worked for technological companies, including IBM Research – Almaden.
A cognitive scientist and linguist, Matlock has published extensively on human communication, especially how people make sense of everyday language. Much of her research analyzes how metaphor or grammatical form is used and understood in real world contexts, for example, in discourse pertaining to wildfire risk, political campaigns, technology, and health. She has received many grants over the years, mostly from the NSF, and has awards for distinction in teaching, faculty mentoring, leadership, research, and community building in cognitive science.
Matlock has taught many courses on language and cognition, such as Introduction to Language and Linguistics, Introduction to Cognitive Science, and Metaphor and Thought, and has mentored many students, postdocs, and faculty members. She served on the editorial boards of Metaphor & Symbol as well as Cognitive Science, and was Associate Editor of Cognitive Linguistics. She also served on the Cognitive Science Society governing board.