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Reviews of my newest book Language, Dementia and Meaning Making: Navigating Challenges of Cognition and Face in Everyday Life (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)


"This book offers the most up-to-date understanding of the social nature of human cognition. Hamilton takes us on a
journey--at once personal and yet at once universal--from her first book on dementia and conversations to the present one on understanding memory as dynamic, evolving, fluid and fully sociolinguistic. This is a very necessary read for all scholars researching issues of memory, language and sociocognition."                                                                                                            Vaidehi Ramanathan, Professor of Linguistics, University of California, Davis                                                                                                                                                      "In a deeply-researched discussion as remarkable for its clarity as for its emphasis on empathetic interaction, Hamilton draws on a lifetime of thought and research to ask: How can people with and without dementia recognize and share what they know in conversation? How do efforts to make meaning help or hinder speakers with dementia in retaining self-worth, a positive self-image, a 'face'?"                                                                                                              Boyd H. Davis, Bonnie E. Cone Professor of Teaching in Applied Linguistics/                          English and Professor of Gerontology, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Welcome to my homepage! Although it would be much more enjoyable to sit down and talk about our mutual interests, no one's yet been able to figure out how to pour a cup of coffee in cyberspace. I hope that -- by moving around this page -- you can find what you're looking for. Click on about for a brief biographical statement, information on my educational background, and my professional history. Click on research to read a general statement about my research interests. Click on teaching and mentoring to find a list of courses I teach at Georgetown as well as a list of doctoral students I've mentored. Click on publications to find a list of selected publications. Click on consulting for a brief description of my work as consultant in the area of medical discourse. And if, after doing all of that, you have questions or comments for me, clicking on contacts will take you to my snail mail and email addresses.