She received her PhD in Germanic Linguistics from UCLA in 2010 and has been working at the University of Kentucky since then as Director of Beginning German, overseeing the curriculum and training of instructors for the first three semesters of German. In the past four years, she has completely redesigned the beginning language sequence with the goals of improving student translingual and transcultural competence through learner-centered instruction, proficiency-based assessments, and close engagement with authentic cultural artifacts using new media. Her research interests include SLA literacy, sociolinguistics, Turkish-German identity, Hip Hop studies, computer-mediated communication, constructed languages, and historical linguistics.