After graduating from university in Russia and teaching English to undergraduate students at the Moscow Power Engineering Research University for six years, I moved to Columbia, South Carolina, to pursue graduate studies in Linguistics and Comparative Literature. I am now engaged in teaching and research on language acquisition on our Columbia campus.

When I’m not researching or teaching, I enjoy hiking, working out in my favorite gym, exploring art and children’s world literature with my fifth-grade daughter, and traveling across the United States.