I completed my doctorate in Anthropology in the subfields of linguistic and Mesoamerican indigenous studies at the University at Albany, SUNY. I also hold a MA in linguistics from San Francisco State University and BA's in anthropology and philosophy from the University of California Davis. I have teaching experience at both large public universities and small liberal arts colleges.

 

I consider myself an interdisciplinary scholar, but my work centers in cultural, linguistic, and visual anthropology. My linguistic interests include discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, syntax, semantics and semiotics, the role of media technologies in communication, language maintenance and change and the relationship between image and language. I am also interested in ethnohistory of indigenous Mesoamerica and the culture of public health.

​

​

My current research projects about indigenous Mesoamerica include the study of political metaphors and the relationship between language (broadly), grammar, image and media technologies in pre-Columbian Mayan texts. This project also involves an examination of language change and language's relationship to history. I am also working on the syntax of Copala Triqui's clause linkage types and a Copala Triqui text on Día de los Muertos. The text recounts the traditional Copala Triqui practices surrounding Día de los Muertos and is form of oral history. The project thus supports the ethnohistory of indigenous communities in Mesoamerica.

 

My current projects on culture and public health include examining the relationship between political metaphors in both language and image in the COVID-19 pandemic and their role in the production of truth. I have a growing interest in cultural narratives surrounding chronic illness, disability, and cancer that I have pursued through teaching medical anthropology courses and relationships with those that are chronically ill.

 

See my RESEARCH tab for more information on these projects and my other research interests.

​

​