Karen V. Beaman is a lecturer of sociolinguistics at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Her primary research is a comparative study of Swabian, a dialect spoken in southwestern Germany, which combines a 35-year panel study with a five-generation trend study. Her work investigates language variation and change in both real- and apparent-time, with particular focus on how factors of identity, mobility, and social networks drive or inhibit change.