About Me

I am a Senior Lecturer in Cornell University's Engineering Communications Program within the College of Engineering, where I teach future engineers in interdisciplinary science teams to develop their communication skills for user-centered projects. I received my PhD from the University of Maryland, where I researched how language users communicate good reasons about how their audiences should feel about a topic. My work is rooted in the cross-section of cognitive linguistics, classical rhetoric, and emotion psychology, with applications in environmental communication, the cognitive and affective sciences, technical communication, political discourse, and philanthropic writing. My specific expertise is in figurative language and thought, lexical semantics, and grammatical constructions (CxG) in persuasive discourse.

At the national and international level, I am a former board member of the International Cognitive Linguistics Association and current co-chair of the Linguistics, Language, and Writing standing group of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Outside of academia, I have worked as a science communicator, technical writer, and language consultant. 

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I directed Corpus Arts, a community DIY radical leftist queer literacy center in New Mexico that provided access to queer books, zines, live music, and rotating art installations. I am deeply committed to fostering safe, queer communities where individuals can explore their identities and place themselves within a broader historical context without fear of judgment.

Outside of work, I have a passion for studying Chinese martial arts, learning standard Mainland Chinese (普通话), tracing moments in 80s and 90s pop culture, writing and playing dog-themed synthpunk music, developing a vegan Persian cookbook and mental health guides, and enjoying long walks in nature.