Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles.
B.A., University of Georgia, Athens.

My main research interests lie in the historical study of Indo-European languages and the use of linguistic typology and theory to study problems that are difficult (and sometimes impossible!) to solve using the traditional Comparative Method.  These include:

• The application of phonological theory in the analysis of ancient Indo-European languages (such as Latin, Greek, Sanskrit and Old English) and the language from which they derive, Proto-Indo-European (PIE). To hear what PIE actually sounded like (approximately), you can listen to me recite two stories in PIE at Archaeology Magazine;
• The reconstruction of phonological constraints within an Optimality Theoretic framework;
• General phonological matters within Indo-European, especially laryngeal theory;
• The interface between phonology and morphology;
• Educating the public about Proto-Indo-European and historical linguistics. In my first major project, I headed a team of scholars to create two languages based on Proto-Indo-European for Far Cry Primal, a first person shooter set in the Stone Age. More recently, I also created eight reconstructed languages for the recent National Geographic Show Origins: The Journey of Humankind.