I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.

In 9th grade, I got in trouble in gym class. We were doing a unit on the high jump, so I was told to write a two-page essay about the high jump. As someone who resented being assigned busywork, I went somewhat off the rails. Here are some excerpts from my paper. First, I established a premise.

In New Orleans for AAAs! Looking forward to seeing how many different iterations of shrimp I can eat in the next three days. Also participating in this fantastic scholarly community etc etc

since chatgpt has coached another young person in a mental health crisis to their death, I am yet again tapping the sign

This seems like a SLIGHT overreaction to some British children saying the word "candy"

I'm discussing the enregisterment of typefaces in class today, and usually I only talk about people's reactions to Comic Sans, but thanks to some fortuitous timing I have a new example.

My new article "The Caveman in the Mirror: Masculinity and Paleofantasy" is now available via early access from Signs and Society! It's part of a special issue, "Chronotopes of Gender," that I coedited with @cat-tebaldi.bsky.social. Full issue will be out in December! doi.org/10.1017/sas....

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...