I’m a field linguist and linguistic anthropologist, meaning that I study how people use language in interaction across cultures. I’m especially interested in child-caregiver interaction, language acquisition, pragmatics (word meaning in context), and documentation of endangered and Indigenous languages. 

I study language use in interaction across cultures and the lifespan. This focus leads to interests in first language acquisition, pragmatics, and language documentation.

All of my research is based on my own fieldwork in the Amazon Basin, where I have spent over 26 months working with speakers of Ticuna (isolate; Peru, Brazil, Colombia) and other Indigenous languages, such as Máíhɨ̃ki (formerly known as Orejón; Tukanoan; Peru). Because these languages are endangered and underdescribed, I complement my core research on deixis and language development with studies of phonology, morphology, and syntax.