Research Interests:

• Historical Linguistics and Philology
• Formal Syntax and Semantics

Education

--Bachelor of Arts, 1999 : English Studies - Johns Hopkins University   [minor studies in  Classics & Linguistics]
     [1995-1999]
             Undergraduate Advisor: Prof. Allen Grossman (English Dept.)

 Fellowships, Scholarships and Awards

• University Fellowship (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), 2006-2007
  
• Summer Research Fellowship (Dept. of Linguistics at UIUC), Summer 2006
  
• Foreign Language Building Fellowship (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), 2005-2006
  
• Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, 2000-2003
  
• National Science Foundation, Integrative Graduate Education & Research Training (IGERT) Fellowship, 1999-2003
  
• Phi Beta Kappa, elected to Alpha Chapter of Maryland, April 1999
  
• National Merit Scholarship, 1995-9
  

Publications

• (2007) 'Untydras ealle: Grendel, Cain, and Vrtra: Indo-European shruti and Christian smrti in Beowulf.' In Geardagum 27:1-32.
  
• (2004) '...þrym gefrunon, ...helle gemundon: Indogermanic shruti and Christian smriti in the Epistemology of Beowulf'. Journal of Northern European Studies 1(1): 5-14.
  
• (2003) 'How to Rank Constraints: constraint conflict, grammatical competition, and the rise of periphrastic do'. in Optimality Theory and Language Change. D. Eric Holt, ed. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 337-385.
• (2002-2005) Beowulf on Steorarume (Beowulf in Cyberspace) - a new critical electronic edition of the text, based on an examination of the original manuscript with supplementary texts including The Fight at Finnsburh, Waldere, Deor, Woden's Nine Herbs Charm, Bede's Account of Cædmon. published online at http://www.heorot.dk/.

Presentations

• A Hat for a Hydra: identifying properties of formulaic sequences across genres (with Jenna Chi, Matt Garley & Marina Terkourafi). paper given at the Linguistics Symposium on Formulaic Language, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee on 18 April 2007.
  
• Splitting the Belly: the Indo-European Dragon-Slaying Myth in Indic & Germanic. paper given at the 25th East Coast Indo-European Conference (25 ECIEC), at the Ohio State University (Columbus) on 20-June-2006.
  
• Historical Change and Repair of Aktionsart: The Development of Compound Verbs/Absolutives in Indo-Aryan, esp. Hindi and Nepali. paper given at the 25th South Asian Linguistic Analysis conference (26 SALA) at the University of Illinois (Urbana/Champaign) on 17-Sept-2005.
  
• Historical Linguistics & Language Maintenance: compound verbs, absolutives & verbal particles in Nepali, Norse & Sanskrit. invited paper given at the 26th All India Conference of Linguists (26 AICL) of the Linguistic Society of India at the NorthEastern Hill University (Shillong, Meghalaya, India) on 1-Dec-2004.
  
• History & Structure of English Verbal Constructions. three lecture series given at Dept. of Linguistics, NEHU, Shillong (Meghalaya, India) - 21st, 23rd, 26th April 2004.
  
• ...þrym gefrunon, ...helle gemundon: Indogermanic shruti and Christian smriti in the Epistemology of Beowulf. paper given [in absentia] at 38th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo (Michigan), 2003. [revised version printed in Journal of Northern European Studies (see above); earlier version available online at http://www.heorot.dk/beowulf-indogermanic.html]
  
• Optimal Curves: an optimality-theoretic approach to the evolution of do-periphrasis in English. talk  given at the Hopkins, University of MarylanD, Rutgers, University of Massachusetts joint class meeting ( HUMDRUM II ), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland on 5 May 2001.
• Catastrophes at 1000 Grammars/Hour on the 'S'-Curve. talk given at the 45th Annual Meeting of the International Linguistic Association on Language Contact and Language Change (in honor of André Martinet). in a Special Session on Optimal Approaches to Language Change, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. on 7 April 2000.

Teaching

• Co-Lecturer & Discussion Section Instructor: Language History (LING 210), UIUC, Spring 2008
  
• Discussion Section Instructor & TA: Language History (LING 210), UIUC, Fall 2007
  
• Instructor: Pronunciation in Conversation - Intensive English Institute (IEI), UIUC, Fall 2006
  
• Instructor: Pronunciation in Conversation - Intensive English Institute (IEI), UIUC, Summer 2006
  

Artwork

• illustration contributor to Beowulf: an illustrated edition, Seamus Heaney, trans., John Niles, ill. ed. New York: Norton, 2007: pg. 178.
  [=digital artwork combining the first page of the Beowulf MS with an illumination from Dijon Municipal Library MS 168, fol. 4b: http://www.news.wisc.edu/14437#section3]
  

Societies

• UIUC Linguistics Student Organisation (LSO), 2006-present
  

'Cædmon's Hymn', ca. 670 A.D. (?)

Gayatri mantra, ca. 1500 B.C. (?)

Hwæt! Also visit My Personal Web-Page/Guide