About me

I was born and spent the first 18 years of my life in Ormskirk, Lancashire, with lasting phonological and syntactic consequences.  Feel free to email me if you're a dialect syntactician in need of data from an enthusiastic and syntactically savvy informant.

I went to Ormskirk Church of England Primary School, and then Ormskirk Grammar School/Ormskirk School (I was there when Ormskirk School was created from the merger of Grammar and Cross Hall High in 2001).   I then did a BA in Modern and Medieval Languages at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (graduating with distinction), followed by an MPhil in linguistics in the same place.  Here's the view from one of the rooms I lived in while there:

During my first degree I spent an academic year volunteering for a small Peruvian children's educational charity called Incawasi.  They're a wonderful group- check out the link and donate! 

It was during that year in Peru that I first came into contact with the Quechua family.  Almost twenty years later, I'm still working on it, and I've done fieldwork on various dialects in Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. 

I did my PhD at New York University from 2009-2014, under the direction of Alec Marantz.

Outside of linguistics, my interests include politics; the Beatles, the Smiths and '90s British bands that were inspired by them; and Manchester United.