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Discourse is the stuff of social reality. Through discourse we both reflect and construct our identities and the identities of others, which is to say that it is mutually constitutive. The relationship between language at the macro-level, which has long been the primary site of analysis for most discourse analysis outside of linguistics and linguistic anthropology, operates in a reflexive relationship with micro-level face-to-face interaction. My work is grounded in the school of Interactional Sociolinguistics established by John Gumperz and Deborah Tannen, which focuses on micro-interaction and its emergent, collaborative nature. Is concentrates on analyzing naturally occurring language that is recorded and transcribed to find the patterns, the system of language use by individuals and groups, especially as they relate to the axes of power and solidarity, of positive and negative face needs of various participants. 

My work currently covers three primary areas of research:  humor in interaction, narrative in interaction, and interability interaction, specifically that between blind and sighted interlocutors.  I am interested in humor as it contributes to individual and group identities, of creating involvement or distance among participants or outsiders, how families* and individuals have styles of humor that can be described in concrete linguistic terms. My article, Identifying a Family Humor style, taxonimizes the types of humor moves of each of four participants in a family as well as the collective family style that results. 

My work in narrative has focused on retellings and identity construction, though lately it focuses on attitudes towards blindness and philosophies for managing it in interability interaction. Particularly when narratives are collaboratively constructed, details emerge that reveal both the similarities in perspective of the event or situation being described, as well as disparities that the co-tellers were previously unconscious of.

Blind/Sighted interaction, involves me in seeking to understand the grammar of the multimodal “nonverbal” but highly visual nature of interaction. What happens to face to face interaction when you withdraw this critical modality? What does it tell us about how we could communicate better with blind people and integrate them more, and what does it tell us about the importance of visual communication in ordinary sighted/sighted interaction? It also involves determining the linguistic means through which society marginalizes people with disabilities or other socially constructed stigma. Deconstructing those elements should provide us with tools for reconstructing a more equitable society.   

Like most interactional sociolinguists, my work draws upon the work of scholars in various related disciplines. Besides a solid foundation in the works of Gumperz and Tannen, our work draws from sociolinguists like William Labov, Ralph Fasold, and