I am a post-doctoral researcher in the Deaf Center at Boston University. I am hearing, my first-language is English, and I have always been fascinated by how humans produce language. As a kid I asked my mom why we make a f sound with our top teeth and our bottom lip, not the other way around. (It turns out at least one language does! Read about it here.) In my undergraduate linguistics program, I learned about how variation in how we produce language can express our identities, opinions, and backgrounds. There, I also learned that American Sign Language (ASL) is a fully independent language, and I realized that if we are to fully understand how humans use language, that understanding must include signed languages, too.

Using tools like human pose estimation (which you can read about here), I study how the production of  ASL signs differs according to signs' characteristics--like frequency or iconicity--and between different signers. I am interested in what sign production patterns teach us about how signers cognitively store and organize their language. You can learn more about my research here.

I am also passionate about teaching and about making the field of linguistics accessible to Deaf/Hard of Hearing and all other researchers. You can learn more about my teaching here.