Assistant Professor
Computational Language Science

	University of Florida Turlington Room 4017 Gainesville, FL
	contact me
	My GitHub

My research encompasses an interdisciplinary approach that builds bridges between disparate fields and builds a virtuous cycle of mutual benefit. From the linguistic perspective, I apply computational methods to the analytic description of newly documented languages. From the computer science perspective, I aim to improve natural language processing (NLP) systems in low-resource settings.

I love helping linguists or others from humanities backgrounds to get started with computational methods. Check out my FAQs!

I have a keen interest in bridging the technological gap between NLP and "pen-and-paper" linguistics. My special interest has long been minority languages of the former Soviet Union, where I first encountered language endangerment and later did fieldwork with Nakh-Daghestanian languages. My reseaerch asks how we can integrate machine learning to provide automated assistance for grammatical description. This leads to interesting questions about how best practices in linguistic field methods might change as it becomes more automated.It also opens interesting questions about ethics in NLP for low-resource languages.

Before entering academia, I taught English as a Foreign Language for many years, did freelance Russian-English interpreting, and worked in the NLP industry. You can read one version of my journey here.

Education

• Ph.D. Linguistics and Cognitive Science
  University of Colorado Boulder
• M.A. Applied Linguistics
  Dallas International University
• B.A. History
  Thomas Edison State College