I am an Assistant Professor in Linguistics and Multilingual Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. My research focuses on morphosyntactic theory through the lens of understudied languages and Historical Linguistics. I am particularly interested in how a deeper understanding of diachronic changes can shed light on the synchronic status of apparently idiosyncratic morpho-syntactic/phonological distributions and phenomena, especially in lesser-investigated Austronesian languages.
Much of my work involves collaboration with local speaker communities and academics in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Some topics I've explored include agreement, verb classes, voice/valency alternations, prosody-syntax mapping, and case assignment. From a diachronic perspective, I also work on grammaticalisation, reanalysis, and changes at the juncture of morphologisation and phonologisation. I am always open to collaboration on any of these areas.
I received my PhD in Linguistics from Harvard University with an NSF-supported dissertation investigating the historical development and theoretical implications of various morphosyntactic phenomena in Amarasi, a Malayo-Polynesian language of West Timor. In my free time, I enjoy playing video games, trying to inline skate, and speed-running jigsaw puzzles.
Updates
July '26 - We just held the 3rd iteration of the International Workshop on Language Documentation and Linguistic Fieldwork at Nusa Cendana University, together with collaborators from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and Atma Jaya Catholic University ! (Blog (ID))
July '26 - New paper accepted at the Journal of Historical Syntax: The Innovation of Inalienable Nominalisers across Meto
March '26 - New paper accepted at Diachronica: From Unnatural Phonology to Productive Morphology: The reanalysis and spread of causative -b across Meto
March '26 - Received an MOE AcRF Tier 1 Grant for the project Bridging history and structure: Formal approaches to family-internal contact morphosyntax across Austronesian.
December '25 - New paper in Oceanic Linguistics on the innovation of prothetic and epenthetic h in Tetun Terik (link)
December '25 - Together with Nusa Cendana University, we've just concluded the second iteration of our transnational workshop series in Language Documentation, Description, and Analysis focusing on the languages of East Nusa Tenggara (Blog (ID), Coverage (ID), Instagram)