Originally from the Pacific Northwest, I completed an MA in German Literature at the University of Washington in 2001 and a PhD in Germanic Linguistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007. I have a passion for language and languages, and I've spent a lot of time and effort learning German, Viennese, Dutch, French, and Spanish.

My teaching and research interests are intentionally interdisciplinary, ranging from European culture, literatures and languages, to several subfields of linguistics (sociolinguistics, dialectology, linguistic anthropology, internet linguistics). I'm particularly passionate about teaching my students to think about and LOOK AT language in completely mind-bending ways. (If I'm your tutor, you'll see what I mean... =)

While my professional passions are teaching and language, privately I enjoy tinkering with computers and technology, exercising, home brewing, hiking, fishing the many streams of Upstate NY, writing plays, reading, and training in Mixed Martial Arts.