I am currently an associate professor of Japanese language and linguistics and the coordinator of the Japanese language program in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles (2023-present). 

My research spans usage-based linguistics, interactional linguistics, historical pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics. I analyze spoken and written Japanese discourse to investigate how language and other semiotic resources contribute to and are shaped by social interactions, cognitive processes, and contexts. More recently, my work has also involved applying the findings and resulting insights from usage-based language studies to language learning and teaching especially at the university level.