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I am Professor Head of the Persian program at Portland State University. My current areas of research are second language acquisition and pedagogy, and sociolinguistics.
I obtained my Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Ottawa in 2005 under the supervision of Prof. María-Luisa Rivero. My dissertation adopts the Minimalist Program of Chomsky to examine the agreement patterns of Persian language. I have published on Persian syntax, morphology, second language pedagogy, and Persian as a heritage language.
I am the editor of Iranian and Minority Languages at Home and in Diaspora, De Gruyter Mouton (2023). I have also edited The Oxford Handbook of Persian Linguistics (2018). My Persian language textbook, Persian in Use: An Elementary Textbook of Language and Culture is taught in 25 universities nationwide as well as in Europe. .
I served as the inaugural Associate Editor of Linguistics for the International Journal of Iranian Studies (Cambridge University Press). I also served as the President of the American Association of Teachers of Persian (2014-2016) and sat in the Executive Board of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages.
Note: Farsi is the native term for the Persian language (similar to Deutsch/German, Français/French, Español/Spanish). The Academy of the Persian Language & Literature (Farhangestaan) recommends the term “Persian” as the preferred term to be used in western languages.
