Jyotsna Vaid

Who is Jyotsna Vaid?

Jyotsna Vaid is a Professor of Psychology at Texas A&M University and an adjunct professor of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She specializes in second language acquisition and bilingualism, and has conducted research on the cognitive and neural bases of these processes, investigating topics such as contextualized humor, the neural representation, and sociocultural factors in second language acquisition and processing. Most notably, Vaid's research has clarified the role of laterality in second language acquisition, suggesting that the right hemisphere plays an important role in subserving representation of second languages. Vaid received a B.A. in biopsychology from Vassar College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from McGill University. She completed two postdoctoral fellowships, one at Michigan State University and the other at the Center for Research on Language at the University of California, San Diego, before being appointed as a tenure-track faculty member at Texas A&M, where she has remained since.