I am a native of Kentucky, where I grew up doing your stereotypical Kentucky things: roaming around fields of bluegrass, riding horses from time to time, attaching unreasonable emotion to the outcome of basketball games, and, most importantly, eating fried chicken.
Somewhere along the way, I got interested in languages, and this has shaped and continues to shape a lot of what I do today. I do linguistics, but I also learn languages. (These are different things, as it turns out.)
In linguistics, I most enjoy working with speakers of minority and understudied languages, looking at nuances in a language’s grammar which tend to go unnoticed. I’m also concerned with understanding the role of linguists – who often, like me, are outsiders in the communities where they work – in documenting, reclaiming, and/or revitalizing minority languages.
When it comes to language learning, I admit that I may be a typical linguist in speaking several languages poorly. But there are some languages where I can hold my own. And in any case, I truly enjoy the process of learning a language and the intellectual and personal growth it demands. Here is a video of me speaking a few of the languages that I embarrass myself the least in.
Outside of language-related pursuits, I enjoy being a kid in nature, whether it’s hiking, swimming, paddle boarding, or noodling – a fishing strategy which is definitely worth informing yourself about. I could also could not live without sports, especially basketball and soccer, which are a creative outlet and a way for me to maintain mental and physical well-being.