[Emily is now a postdoc at the University of California at Davis, and in a few months will begin as an assistant professor at Florida State University]

My research focuses on the process of speciation, both on a broad-scale and a fine-scale in the North American chorus frogs (Pseudacris). On the broad end, I employ molecular data to determine phylogenetic relationships among species. I use phylogeographic analyses at the intraspecific level to identify major geological and climatological events that have contributed to divergence of populations. To examine speciation on a finer-scale level, I study a secondary contact zone between two hybridizing chorus frog taxa in the southeastern U.S. In this hybrid zone I investigate the completion of speciation between incipient species through studies of the natural and sexual selective forces driving divergence of these species in sympatry. To understand this process, I test female phonotaxis behavior, examine relative fitness of hybrids, and investigate the relationship between geographic variation in advertisement calls and hybridization frequency.