I was sixteen when I first heard the word 'linguistics'. Intrigued by whisperings of language acquisition, morphology and historical linguistics, I decided to read up on the subject. So I went to the bookstore and, in the interest of testing the waters before plunging into this academic pursuit, purchased the slimmest linguistics book there. Two hours later, I curled up on my couch and opened to the first page of Noam Chomsky's 'Language and Thought'.

Six years later I am only more intrigued by the study. I turned 21 in Argentina doing fieldwork on Wichi - this picture was actually taken on my birthday, which I celebrated that year by walking to Paraguay and, later, databasing. I'm going to Australia in January to do fieldwork for a Master's at University of Western Australia, under a Fulbright grant. Until then, I'm working on a Master's at EMU.

My life outside of linguistics is mostly in past tense because, since discovering the study, I have a hard time convincing myself to do anything else. I used to compete in public speaking, judo, wrestling and tennis (I was actually something of an athlete before I became an academic), and most of my furniture was built by either me or my family. Nowadays I still craft small things, like bookshelves, when I can find a woodshop, and dabble just a little bit in web design. If you're intrigued, feel free to visit my academic website.