As of Summer 2025, I am an Associate Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Yale University. Before moving to Yale, I was a faculty member in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at Harvard before that. I received my PhD in Linguistics from MIT.
Much of my research focuses on how people acquire their native language. I’m particularly interested in how a child first breaks into language, when some piece of their linguistic knowledge begins to adult-like, and what developmental steps occur along the way. Current work in my lab investigates these questions through behavioral experiments with young children.
In addition to my developmental research, I also study linguistic representations in the adult state, with a focus on syntax and semantics. This work draws on both experimental approaches and traditional methods from theoretical linguistics.