Research Projects

Multimodal Semantics

My dissertation research developed formal semantic representations for non-verbal communication in dialogue. This includes GAMR (Gesture Abstract Meaning Representation), an extension of AMR for capturing gesture meaning, and work on grunts as complete communicative acts with distinct pragmatic functions.

Resources: Annotation Guidelines (PDF)

Key publications: Abstract meaning representation for gesture, The Grunt Work of Conversational Grounding: Minimal Responses in Multimodal Dialogue

Dissertation: “Uh, Actually: Grunt Acts as Grounding Contributions in Multimodal Dialogue”

Culinary Linguistics

I apply computational methods to analyze food discourse, examining how language constructs authenticity and cultural identity. Projects include R2VQ (Recipe-to-Video Question Answering) and Just Like My Nonna Made It: Authority and Authenticity in Italian-American Tomato Sauce Recipes (forthcoming chapter on sociolinguistics and identity formation in Italian-American recipes).

Resources: R2VQ

Collaborative Learning Technology

As a student researcher with iSAT (NSF Institute for Student-AI Teaming), I have worked on frameworks for understanding human collaboration in educational contexts. This includes work on common ground tracking and situated dialogue in collaborative problem-solving tasks.

I have also published on Digital Literacy in elementary CS education.