About Me
classicist-sociologist-musician-linguist
I am a PhD Student at the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Linguistics. I received my M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Pittsburgh in August, 2008, and a B.A. in Linguistics and a B.A. in Music from The Ohio State University in June, 2006. I also completed minor programs at OSU in Classics and Sexuality Studies.
I currently play tenor trombone with the East Winds Symphonic Band and occasionally make guest appearances with The Madison Jazz Project and Sister Kate and the Bad Habits.
The images you see on this page are my own photography. I am an amateur photographer, and you can see some of my work here.
Interests
things I have studied or one day will
Within linguistics, I primarily study Sociolinguistics with focus areas in discourse analysis (particularly Conversation Analysis), language and gender, and language and sexuality. My main interest is e-Linguistics, and I am currently doing an ethnographic study of a community of World of Warcraft gamers, paying particular attention to how they construct online relationships and identities within the linguistic and social bounds of the game world. My Master's Thesis is entitled "Virtual Discourse Structure: An Analysis of Conversation in World of Warcraft". For more information on the WoW project, click here.
Musically, I am an active trombonist, and I am also interested in theory and music cognition. I did an Undergraduate Thesis at Ohio State under the supervision of Dr. David Huron. We have been working on a project to describe the difficulties encountered in comprehending sung lyrics of songs.
In Classics, I am particularly interested in Ancient Greek literature and society, especially sexuality as seen in Classical Athens. I am also interested in para-comedy and para-tragedy and the work of Aristophanes. Unfortunately, I have read most of my Greek texts in translation; however, the updating of Ancient Greek comedy to be understandable to modern audiences in translation is a topic of great interest to me as I endeavor to learn Ancient Greek.
Teaching
past experience and current work
I am a TA in the Linguistics Department. I have worked with Professor Scott Kiesling and Professor Chia-Hui Huang to teach Undergraduate Linguistics courses.
I will be teaching my own section of Language, Gender, and Society in Fall 2008.
In the past, I have been a TA for:
LING 1000 "Introduction to Linguistics"
LING 1951 "Languages of the World"
LING 1273 "Aspects of Sociolinguistics"
LING 1235 "Language, Gender, and Society"
Resources
papers and handouts
Papers
- __ & Huron, D. (2006.) "Comparison of Word Intelligibility in Spoken and Sung Passages." Submitted.
- (2006.) "Reflections of real life: Contextualizing gay "speech" online." Unpublished, The Ohio State University. [PDF]
- (2006.) "Subtext and identity: Constructing sexuality in 'Firefly' fanfiction." Unpublished, The Ohio State University. [PDF]
- (2005.) "Insanity! Euripides, pastiche, and mortality." Unpublished, The Ohio State University. Winner of the Honorable Mention in Classics at Ohio State. [PDF]
- (2005.) "Singhalese Wh-Question Construction." Unpublished, The Ohio State University. [PDF]
Handouts
- Prepositions in Attic Greek. (Original from Karen Hoover; reproduced electronically.) [PDF]
(More coming soon!)
Contact
all the information you'll ever need
E-Mail: lbc8@pitt.edu
Mailing address: 2816 Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Office: 1532 Cathedral of Learning
Phone: (412) 648-2375
AIM: parnopaeus