Research interests

Anthropological linguistics

Understanding the complex interplay between the physical landscape, culture, cognition, and language is at the heart of my PhD, that is part of the ARC funded OzSpace Project, where I combine ethnographic methods with psycholinguistic experiments to explore spatial language, culture, and cognition.

Apart from my fieldwork based PhD, I’ve been doing linguistic fieldwork since 2017. I’ve worked on documenting spatial language in Nahuatl as spoken in Tequila (Veracruz), Zojualo (San Luis Potosi) and Hueyapan (Morellos) and I’ve also worked on documenting reciprocal constructions and spatial language in Acazulco Otomí (The state of Mexico).

I am interested in how technology can effectively be combined with traditional methods of language documentation and how making this technology easily accessible can help both experts and non-experts with efforts of language documentation. Always happy to receive suggestions on new technology that can be utilised!

Cognitive science

Experimental design and using psycholinguistics methods both in the field and in the lab is integral to my research and my interests in cognitive science. I’ve used and been involved in developing a range of psycholinguistic methods designed to be used in the field, with a focus on methods targeting motion descriptions and spatial gestures. For example my acting skills can be seen on full display in the brilliant Associated Motion Video Stimuli designed by Ditte Boeg Thomsen and Mads Nielsen.

For my Master’s thesis I designed a mouse tracking study investigating the processing of reflexive pronouns in Danish as part of my master’s thesis. I also participate in the Lab of Applied Language Science at the University of Newcastle developing interactive eye-tracking tasks.

Semantic typology

Underlying my research is an interest in semantic typology, or the study of how meaning is structured across the worlds languages. This is relevant to my work on reciprocal constructions (Danish article, English in prep.), spatial frames of reference (in Nahuatl and as part of my PhD), and I’ve written a pioneering paper (in Danish) on how the domain of baked goods is structured differently across a handful of European languages.