I'm an associate professor in Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, a member of the Penn Evolution Cluster and the Psychology Graduate Group, the founder and director of the Cultural Evolution of Language Lab, and the founder and co-director of the Social and Cultural Evolution Working Group at Penn.
Most of my research involves conducting experiments in which participants communicate using artificial languages, or have to construct new languages from scratch. These experiments help to shed light on the role of social and communicative pressures in shaping the emergence and evolution of language (and, indeed, other communication systems).
Broadly speaking I'm interested in most issues related to language evolution and change, and cultural evolution in general. You can read more about my current research on my lab webpage. There is also a list of publications (mostly downloadable) here and a list of recent and upcoming presentations here. You can take a look at my CV here.
If you think you might be interested in working with me as a grad student, read this first!
