By training, I am a laboratory phonologist, which means I worry about sounds both as physical entities and
as grammatical entities. Broadly, I’m interested in phonological categories: What are they? How are they formed? What’s the evidence for them? How do they relate to the phonetic substrate? In more traditional terms, I study features, segments and inventories and the way they play together at the phonology-phonetics interface.
My dissertation considered the class of voiced spirants (the voiced, non-sibilant fricatives), with a special focus on /v/. Specifically, I looked at how /v/ and the remaining voiced spirants patterned phonetically, phonologically, and in terms of their distribution to consonant inventories with respect to the obstruent-sonorant divide. If you’d like to read my dissertation, please email me!
I have recently shifted much of my energy to linguistic pedagogy. I am particularly committed to using linguistics to shed light on issues of discrimination and prejudice, and I strive to design inclusive classes that don’t shy away from tackling difficult issues. I am also concerned with getting undergraduates involved in authentic research, both in classes and in the senior theses I advise.