I’m a fifth-year PhD student in the Linguistics Department at the University of Maryland. My advisors are Masha Polinsky (UMD) and Dave Embick (UPenn).

Very broadly, I’m interested in exploring what the combinatorial limits of natural language tell us about its general properties. My research is primarily in the subfields traditionally called syntax and morphology, with an empirical focus on Slavic and Mayan languages. My thesis asks the following questions: What are the basic building blocks of syntax and how do they map onto lexical categories, as traditionally construed? Does structure-building look the same above and below the ‘word’ level? Are locality constraints that operate above and below the ‘word’ level the same or different?

I’m affiliated with UMD’s Guatemala Field Station, where I’ve gained fieldwork experience in K’iche’. My research on this language has examined exceptive constructions, antipassives, ellipsis, and the widely held (but not closely scrutinized) view that Mayan languages lack the category Tense.

You can check out other topics I’ve worked on in my CV.