I’m a linguistic and sociocultural anthropologist working in contemporary Kazakhstan and Turkic Inner Asia. I’m interested in covert and overt language politics and nomadic heritage as they intersect with diversified development strategies, from transnational infrastructure projects and special economic zones to new alphabets and technofinance. Introduced to linguistics and linguistic/semiotic anthropology as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, I remain committed to exploring the dialectical relationship between situated, real-time interaction and larger sociocultural processes and institutions, especially through projects of scale- and place-making.
