Selected Works

Education and Professional Positions

I received my B.S from Georgetown University in 1990, and my M.A. and Ph.D from the University of Texas in 1993 and 1996, respectively.

Currently, I am the Sarah G. Thomason Professor of Linguistics; Arthur F. Thurnau Professor; and Professor of English Language and Literatures and Germanic Languages and Literatures.

Among other governance assignments at the University of Michigan, I have been elected to the University Faculty Senate and appointed to the Advisory Boards of the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, the College’s Instructional Technology Committee, the Language Resource Center, and the University Libraries. I co-chaired the 2021 committee advising the Dean of LSA on LGBTQ+ visibility and the 2022 committee advising the Provost on Work Connections (extended sick leave and accommodations). I chaired the 2016 committee advising the Dean of LSA on changing the Associate Professor promotion process.

I have served the Linguistics Department in a variety of capacities, including as Director of Graduate Studies, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Associate Department Chair and Department Chair. I’ve also served as the Chair of the Department of Communication and Media. I was the co-chair of the Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics for the Linguistic Society of America and was the co-director (w/Andries Coetzee) of the 2013 Summer Institute in Linguistics.I have been an elected member of the Linguistic Society of America’s Executive Committee. I served as the co-editor (w/Anne Curran) of the Journal of English Linguistics from 2006-2012 and am on the editorial boards of multiple academic journals.