She holds Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests center around people's everyday uses of new technologies, particularly as they relate to language & social interaction, participation in online communities, and new forms of media production. She works primarily from a qualitative ethnomethodological perspective, particularly that of conversation analysis. Recent projects include a survey of independent audio podcasters and research on English emoticons and Japanese kaomiji in computer-mediated discourse.