About Me

I’m originally from North Carolina, where there is decidedly much less snow. Before starting at MSU in 2021, I earned BAs in German Studies and English in 2016 and an MA in English (linguistics) in 2020 from North Carolina State University. While there, I worked primarily on projects with Robin Dodsworth and Walt Wolfram, including conducting fieldwork for a project collecting acoustic data and oral histories from residents of Chatham County, North Carolina. In my MA thesis, advised by Dr. Dodsworth, I investigated how the perceived age of speakers and the actual age of listeners interact with one another in the way that Southern US English vowels index social information. This was done in a community relatively close to the city of Raleigh, where the Southern Vowel Shift has been shown to be reversing over time.

With some past and present members of Michigan State University’s sociolinguistics lab at NWAV 51.

I have worked with language in various capacities outside of my formal education, including teaching German at a language institute in Chapel Hill, NC and doing linguistic research in Vienna, Austria on a Fulbright-Mach Award. I’ve lived for extended periods of time in both Germany and Austria, and enjoy returning to visit colleagues and friends when I can.

With some friends and fellow Michigan State University PhD linguistics students.

In my free time, I enjoy reading a good science fiction or fantasy novel, writing fiction, playing story-driven video games, going to see local live music, traveling around Michigan and exploring cool new places with friends, and playing tennis (although I don’t do it nearly enough!). I’ve also recently started getting into cross-stitch!

With a group of friends and North Carolina State University colleagues at NWAV 50 in San Jose, CA.