I'm in my second year of a Ph.D. program in the humanities. I grew up in Chicago, went to college in western Massachusetts, and lived in Germany for a year before moving here. I like all the usual stuff: books, music, movies, wine, doing fun things in the city, etc.

I'm studying music and history for the next five or six years.

Singing (Maybe not really good, but pretty good for sure.)

Incurring massive library fines. I had $3,000 at one point this year.

I’m really good with kids. I have three six-year-old sisters and they are my favorite people in the world.

Books: Lolita, Middlemarch, anything by Dickens. I love novels but unfortunately I have little time for them lately. Most of what I read is scholarship in the subject I study, which is good too.

Movies: old ones (noir, screwballs, musicals, Hitchcock!), Christopher Guest, art house movies, movies in German, movies I watched as a child, the occasional lame romantic comedy.

Music: I spend the most time listening to western classical music (it’s what I study) but my tastes are wide-ranging. I'm pretty sure I will always be listening to the Beatles, Radiohead, and the Smiths. I try my best to keep apprised of what’s going on in indie rock/pop. I love jazz but know little about it. Lately I’ve really been enjoying musical theater from the 1920s to the 1960s. I like bluegrass and alt country. If you want me to talk your ear off about classical music I’d be glad to do that in person. If you don't I won't be offended.

Food: everything (that's vegetarian)

TV: Mad Men, The Wire, 30 Rock