She uses experimental methods to investigate syntactic typology, particularly constituent order, and also studies variation in island phenomena. Her work further examines language contact at the word level, including loanword adaptation and perceptions of language boundaries.

Dr. Dunn joined the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as an Associate Professor in 2024. He has published more than 50 papers and three monographs with Cambridge University Press.

-adolescents and preadolescents and their role in linguistic change. Much of her fieldwork takes place in schools, connecting her research to questions about learning, education, and the construction of adolescence in American society.