Despite the name I was born and raised in Havertown, PA (a few miles west of Philadelphia). I was fortunate to study linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania (BA/MA 2004, PhD 2009) with my main areas of focus being Indo-European linguistics (Armenian, Celtic, and Latin/Greek), and morphology (Distributed Morphology).
After finishing my decade at Penn, I taught Latin for one year at Notre Dame Jr/Sr High School in the Poconos along with some linguistic courses in a trifecta of universities in the Philadelphia area. While I enjoy driving, putting so many miles on my car was unappealing. Fortuitously, I was offered a tenure-track position at Minot State University in frigid yet surprisingly very sunny North Dakota, where I stayed until 2022, when my tenure did little to save the termination of my program. C'est la vie. I had predominately taught French, German, Latin, and an array of independent studies focused on linguistics and/or less-commonly taught languages. Of these, teaching Latin has always been my favorite (well maybe Welsh), so I decided to jump back to the high school realm where Latin jobs abound. After one year of teaching Latin at Lincoln HS in Sioux Falls, SD, however, I decided I needed to get back to academia. In August 2023 I will begin a role as Associate Professor of Global Studies at Muskingum University in New Concord, OH.
Research-wise I mainly focus on trying to find synchronic solutions to curious phonological and morphological data. I also enjoy writing pedagogical materials for dead Indo-European languages.
I very much love the open road and should've been a trucker in another life. I've been to 48 states (drove to 47, flew to 1 (FL)).
States I've spent the night in: AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, ND, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WV, WY
State I've only driven through: AR, DE, ME, MS, NM, OK, RI, SC, TN, WA