About Me

I received my B.A. in English Literature from the University of California, Davis (1975) and my Ph.D. in English with a Linguistics Emphasis from the University of California, Berkeley (1981). My doctoral dissertation, directed by Julian Boyd, was entitled “The Historical Development of Aspectual Periphrases in English.” Since completing my doctorate, I have been a member of the Department of English Language and Literatures of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, attaining the rank of Professor in 1995. I have held numerous UBC Humanities and Social Sciences small grants as well as Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada (SSHRC) Standard Research Grants (1998-2000, 2007-10, 2011-2012) and a SSHRCC Leave Fellowship (1985-86). In 1999 I was awarded an Izaak Walton Killam Research Prize and in 2006 I received an Izaak Walton Killam Faculty Research Fellowship.

I have organized sessions at the Modern Language Association and Philological Association of the Pacific Coast, I organized the 14th ICHL (International Conference of Historical Linguistics) held in Vancouver in August 1999, and I have organized the History of English sections for IAUPE (International Association of University Professors of English) held in August 2004 in Vancouver and in July 2012 in Beijing. I organized the academic program of SHEL-6 (Society for the History of English) held in conjunction with GLAC-15 (Society for Germanic Linguistics) in Banff in 2009 and helped organize a joint meeting of SHEL-9 and DSNA -20 (Dictionary Society of North America) held in Vancouver in June 2015.

From 1997-1999, I served as Associate Head for Graduate Studies. For many years, I was chair of the English Language Program.

On June 30, 2023, I retired after 42 years at UBC.

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