About me

I am an Adjunct Instructor (Associate Professor) of English at the American University of Afghanistan, where I have been teaching courses on writing and linguistics remotely since January 2021. From 2012-2020, I served as Assistant Professor of English Language and Linguistics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (English Department) at the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria, where I taught writing and linguistics courses. Prior to joining the faculty at AUN in 2012, I was a research scientist in the Less Commonly Taught Languages and Cultures area of the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL), where I specialized in African languages. I received my Ph.D in Linguistics from Indiana University (IU) in April of 2008, concentrating in Sociolinguistics and African Languages & Linguistics. My doctoral dissertation was on register variation in Dagbani. I acquired my M.A. in Linguistics in 2002.  During graduate studies at IU, I was employed as a research assistant for Professor Samuel Obeng, including editorial management for the journals Issues in Political Discouse Analysis and Issues in Intercultural Communication, and I also served as a Research/Editorial Assistant for the Cajun Dictionary Project of the Creole Institute at Indiana University (led by Professor Albert Valdman). I have been an Assistant Instructor for topics courses in Language & Politics (Fall 2006, Fall 2005, Fall 2001, and Spring 2001) and for Introduction to Linguistic Analysis (Spring 2002, Fall 2002, Spring 2003) as well as grader for Animal Communication (Spring 2007) . For my dissertation research I was a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Program Fellow in Tamale, Northern Ghana affiliated with Tamale Polytechnic University. Prior to attending graduate school, I was a Crisis Corps volunteer in Guinea, West Africa (Feb.-Aug. 1998) and a Peace Corps volunteer and logistics coordinator in the Republic of Congo (1994-1997). I received a dual B.A. in French and Political Science at Boise State University. My research interests are register variation and discourse analysis.