Most of my research is based on fieldwork data. You can read about some of the languages and projects I'm working on below.

Baatonum

Baatonum (ISO: bba) is a Niger-Congo language spoken in Benin. My work on Baatonum began in a fields methods class taught at Rutgers in Spring 2023, and I have continued to work on the language since then. Currently, I am working with Mark Baker and Thuong (Beryl) Bui on clitics, with Maria Kouneli and Thuong (Beryl) Bui on causatives, and with Jiayuan Chen on definites.

Kazakh

Kazakh (ISO: kaz) is a Turkic language primarily spoken in Kazakhstan. In the summer of 2025, I went to Kazakhstan with some other Rutgers students for a fieldwork trip led by Adam McCollum. My current interest in Kazakh involves say-complementation. Kazakh embedded clauses are often introduced by dep, which is a converbial form of the verb deu "to say". Interestingly, while dep has a converb use, the dep that introduces embedded clauses can also behave like a true complementizer. With certain predicates related to speech, however, dep still behaves like a verb rather than a complementizer. You can check out our LSA proceedings paper on dep here.

Yemba

Yemba (ISO: ybb) is a Niger-Congo language spoken in Cameroon. I began working on Yemba in a field methods class at Rutgers. You can see a copy of our handout on definiteness and familiarity in Yemba here.