About Me

I received my PhD in theoretical linguistics from the Department of Linguistics at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1989, and joined the University of Arizona (UA) in 1990. I served as a faculty member at UA for 34 years till my retirement in May 2024.

I am currently a Professor Emerita of Linguistics at the same university. However, I am actively continuing my research on Iranian languages and linguistics.

I served as the head of the Department of Linguistics from 2011 to 2016, and the director of the graduate program in the same department between 2004 and 2011.

I was the first Endowed Chair of The Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Professorship in Iranian Linguistics from 2022 till 2025.

I was also affiliated with the Cognitive Science Program, the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT), the joint Program in Linguistics and Anthropology, the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies (MENAS), and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

My research has been focused on various syntactic topics within Chomskyan theoretical framework, specifically the Minimalist Program. I have worked extensively on word order and scrambling, the interaction of syntax and discourse, the syntax, semantics and morphology of complex predicate constructions, raising and control constructions, and complex DPs, among other topics. I have also investigated the syntax-morphology and syntax-semantics interface of various types of ellipsis constructions, passive formation, clitic positioning and stacking, and Ezafe construction.

I have published journal articles, book chapters, and one book length monograph. I have also edited/co-edited eight books, a special issue on complex predicates for the journal Lingua, and another one on parameters for the journal Linguistic Analysis.

My research was supported by major grants from National Science Foundation (NSF) between 2015 and 2023. Together with two collaborators, we are currently preparing a volume on the syntax, morpho-syntax, morphology, phonology and morpho-phonology of four Iranian languages (Ossetian, Pashto, Persian and Sorani-Kurdish), a project that was originally funded by National Science Foundation. I am also preparing a few articles on various topics related to syntax and morpho-syntax of various Iranian languages.

My non-linguistics interests include organizing a bi-monthly movie club gathering, following world politics, specifically the events in the Middle East, reading modern and classical Persian poetry, listening to music (especially western classical music), hiking, exercising, traveling, and pampering my little puppy Pambe. I also spent five years as the co-president of the Iranian Cultural Association of Southern Arizona (I-CASA), helping to maintain and promote various aspects of the Iranian culture.