Matthew Edward Adams
matthew.adams@compassrose.slmail.me · Salt Lake City, UT · compassrose.garden
Education
Ph.D. in Linguistics · Stanford University · 2014. Dissertation: The Comparative Grammaticality of the English Comparative.
M.A. in German · Georgetown University · 2005. Highest Distinction on the oral examination of the thesis. Specialization: German literature, language teaching, and second language acquisition. Thesis: Re-positioning the Individual in Society: Insights from Russian Studies of Language and Mind, Discursive Psychology, and Instructed Second-Language Acquisition.
B.A. in Linguistics and B.A. in German · University of California, Irvine · 2002. Summa cum laude in Linguistics and magna cum laude in German; Phi Beta Kappa. Honors thesis: The Development of the German Dorsal Fricatives: An Optimality-Theoretic Account. Affiliate scholar in German, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 2000–2001.
Fellowships and awards. Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Fellowship and Stanford Europe Center Grant, 2014–2015; Linguistic Society of America Institute Fellowship, 2009; Bud Milligan Fellowship, Stanford University, 2006–2008; Order of Merit (top 2%), School of Social Sciences, UC Irvine, 2002.
Experience
English Faculty and Writing Center Director · Waterford School
Sandy, UT · 2019–present
Teaches British and American literature and designed senior seminars on invented languages and on the non-fiction literature of the Great Basin. Directed the Writing Center from 2020 to 2023, conducting more than 1,000 individual writing conferences.
Humanities Instructor and Project Designer · High Tech High
San Diego, CA · 2016–2019
Taught English and history in a project-based public charter school, designing interdisciplinary projects with a partnered math and science teacher and with local businesses so that student work had real-world connections. ESL instruction.
Computer Science Editor · Shmoop
Mountain View, CA · 2014–2015
Launched several computer science courses at an education start-up; hired and managed a small team of writers and edited their work for accuracy, clarity, and voice.
Postdoctoral Researcher · Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
DAAD Fellow · 2013–2014
Statistical and quantitative research on the relationship between frequency of usage and prosodic structure in German and English.
Earlier
Research and Teaching Assistant · Stanford University · 2007–2012. Assisted in eight courses, some at the graduate level; worked on three research projects with Arto Anttila, Dan Jurafsky, and Joan Bresnan; served as Mentor Teaching Assistant, developing a course on pedagogy, and as Graduate Student Representative in 2007–2008.
German Legal Proofreader · Geotext · 2011–2014. Proofread German-to-English legal documents, working closely with German and Austrian translators.
German Instructor · Georgetown University · 2003–2005. Taught intermediate German and took part in curriculum reform, drawing on statistical methods and CHILDES data to inform improvements.
Publications
Adams, Matthew. 2017. “Prosodic well-formedness and comparative grammaticality: morphology and periphrasis in the English comparative.” In The Morphosyntax–Phonology Connection: Locality and Directionality at the Interface, edited by Vera Gribanova and Stephanie Shih, 197–222. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Anttila, Arto, Matthew Adams, and Mike Speriosu. 2010. “The role of prosody in the English dative alternation.” Language and Cognitive Processes 25: 946–981.
Credentials and skills
California Clear Single Subject Teaching Credential · Document No. 230253814 · Valid through June 1, 2029 (current document issued June 1, 2024; originally issued July 1, 2018), and verifiable through the Commission on Teacher Credentialing’s public lookup. Authorizes teaching English and Social Science (added 2019) in preschool through grade twelve and in adult classes, and carries the authorization to serve English learners within those subjects.
Languages: German (C1/C2, active) · French (intermediate) · Spanish (basic) · Korean (beginner)
Research areas: Formal syntax and phonology · Second language acquisition · Discourse analysis
Research methods: Corpus linguistics, including hand-built corpus tools in Python; statistical analysis in R and Python
Computing: Linux system administration and self-hosted infrastructure (Arch, Debian, Proxmox, ZFS, Docker, LXC, reverse proxy, DNS) · Python · R · Shell scripting · Git · Emacs and Org Mode · Static-site development (Hugo, HTML, CSS) · LLM-assisted tooling for infrastructure and personal knowledge management, with human review of every change
Teaching: Curriculum and project design · Harkness/REAL discussion facilitation · Writing center administration
Backcountry: More than a decade of backpacking, mostly solo and lightweight, including remote treks in the Uintas.
A more complete résumé is available on request.