Urbana, IL

Chants of Sennaar is a very cool linguistics-y game, but with one thing that annoyed my semi-linguist self: one of the languages' syntax initially appears to be verb-first (VS), but then every other sentence is OSV, so I guess it's just... Yoda syntax?

Academic conference pro tip: if you're going to fully take a nap for an entire panel — like, head tipped back, feet up on the seat in front of you — maybe don't sit in the third row.

I can't actually justify including this in the book chapter I am currently writing, so I'll just put it here instead.

Something my students and I realized today, discussing Spitulnik's Zambian radio catchphrase article: a lot of the famous media phrases that have been taken up in American discourse ("Houston, we have a problem"; "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore") are examples of dramatic understatement.

My special issue on narrative and scale, coedited with @mkoven66.bsky.social and @sabyperri.bsky.social, is officially out! journals.sagepub.com/toc/DIS/curr...

This should terrify every person in this country. The use of machine learning systems to approximate an individuals views on war and then, if they are here lawfully on a visa, tag them for deportation is about as sci-fi dystopian as it gets. www.axios.com/2025/03/06/s...

Pioneering a new kind of corpus research (crossword puzzle clues) for this slide in my lecture on Mock Spanish. Feel free to use in your own lectures!

I made a short list of books that most challenge myths about about gender and sex for @shepherdbooks.bsky.social. Check it out: shepherd.com/best-books/c...

I suppose I should post something so my profile isn't just blank. Here's a link to my most recent publication, "Constructing cancel culture: Strategic scaling in stories of 'cancellation'" doi.org/10.1177/1461...