About Me

I’m a Senior Lecturer and Undergraduate Advisor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Maryland, College Park. I also serve as a mentor and supervisor for graduate student  instructors. The courses I teach are unified by the exploration of various aspects of the human language system and by how our developing understanding of that system contributes to the goal of understanding what it means to be human.

My focus is on introductory courses because I am very interested in helping undergraduates discover how complex and fascinating human language is and in helping them develop and expand their skills of analytical problem solving and effective argumentation.

I am also very interested in general issues of effective pedagogy and in how to leverage various technologies to that end. I’m currently exploring more ways to deeply and actively engage students in challenging their preconceptions and taking more intellectual risks.

I’m also faculty advisor for Avirah: UMD’s Israeli Dance troupe and Anokha: UMD’s South Asian a cappella team.