Research
My work is based on fieldwork with understudied and endangered language communities for formal and applied purposes. My primary focus is on languages of Indigenous America, with most of my work focusing on the (Northern) Iroquoian language Kanien’kéha (Mohawk), though I also have experience with African languages. As an extension of my fieldwork, I am interested in field methodologies and best practics, including ethical considerations, elicitation methods, and text collection.
My formal interests center on morphosyntax and its interfaces. In other words, I am interested in modeling how the structures of words and sentences are built up, and the consequences of these structures on both meaning (semantics) and sound (phonology). My broad interests are in argument structure and its alternations, and binding and anaphora. I am additionally interested in the nature of morphology, specifically as it applies to processes of wordbuilding, as well as the semantics of definiteness. I have investigated these mostly through the lens of noun incorporation.
My applied interests are in language documentation and revitalization. For the past two years, I have worked closely with a Kanien’kehá:ka elder and PhD student towards creation of a beginner’s textbook for the language based on her forty years of teaching materials and methods. I have also been involved in several transcription workshops as part of a joint initiative between McGill and several local cultural centers, such as Kanien’kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center and the Kanehsatà:ke Education Center.