hi! i'm a linguist

...which means i'm basically a professional language nerd /hj

i am an associate teaching professor in the department of linguistics at the university of kansas, where i'm also affiliate faculty in the Indigenous studies program, the center for latin american & carribbean studies, and the kansas african studies center. i co-lead the research in field & formal linguistics seminar, & am a member of the field linguistics lab.

i am privileged to work with several Indigenous languages & communities, such as Kiksht (Warm Springs, OR), Me'phaa (Guerrero, México, & in the U.S.), and Ikpana (Volta Region, Ghana). my research mostly centers on how words, phrases, & sentences are built, aka morphology & syntax. i'm fascinated by the core geometries of language(s), and, in addition to language description & documentation, i work within generative frameworks to try to understand cognitive processes of structure building. but i've also long had a penchant for investigating issues related to identity, ideologies, & discrimination, and thus do a bit of work with a more sociocultural flair, as well.