On a classically rainy spring day in Jamaica Plain, I went to a friend's concert. She was singing backup for a band in a local dive bar. I walked in, looked around, and realized: Ah! This venue is frequented by women who date women. Fair enough. Much of my adolescence was spent suspecting and hoping that I would be one of these -- my politics, aesthetics, and social circle all pointed that way -- but alas, the gonads, perplexed as they were about other things, showed a very clear preference for gentlemen.

Upon further inspection of the bar, however, I realized that much of the clientele was performing gender in a space not defined by traditional maleness or femaleness. A little bell started to jingle deep in the reaches of my head. Pay attention, it said. There's something here for you.

I'm a PhD student in human evolutionary biology. I study the evolution of human reproductive behavior and physiology in an ecological context -- functionally, this means that I follow adolescent female subsistence agriculturalists in West Africa and analyze the responsiveness of their metabolic and reproductive hormones to growth, activity, and changes in body composition. It's a wonderful grab-bag of endocrinology, logistical masterminding, team management, statistical know-how (still working on that part), and intercultural diplomacy. Well, many days I think it is wonderful. Other days I creatively curse Ramadan, the rainy season, C-peptide of insulin, confidence intervals, and cluster randomization.

In stolen hours, I write fiction, poetry, and critical/theoretical essays in evolution and literature. My undergraduate background is in comparative literature in French and Italian; I foresee returning to literature some day in an interdisciplinary capacity, probing the questions that literature poses to us about human nature as it runs counter to what evolutionary theory might predict! Why are we fascinated by stories of people who are gay, celibate, altruistic, cruel, sociopathic, or otherwise outside the heteronormative reproductive narrative? (Darwinian lit crit, the nascent school of thought tackling the intersection of evolution and literature, approaches it from a slightly different perspective, using literature as a data mine to confirm observations already propounded in evolutionary theories about human nature. Jonathan Gottschall and Brian Boyd are two prominent thinkers in this camp. An example: Gottschall analyzes Homer's Illiad from the perspective of male-male coalitions and competition in an evolutionary context.)

Fiction-writing is my greatest joy at the moment. I'm in the midst of a project longer than anything I've attempted before and, propelled onward by über-supportive housemates who read, critique, and illustrate (!), I'm hoping to complete a draft in the next year.

co-opting New Yorker cartoons and re-captioning them for birthday cards. Making dinner for large numbers of people on the fly. Cake-baking. Good-byes that sound like pastoral benedictions (my sister teases me about this one).

Wow, she SMILES a lot! Is she for real? (Answer: Yes. She was just raised by Midwestern school marms.)

Books -- The Ice Palace (Tarjei Vesaas), Sherlock Holmes (all), Emily L. (Marguerite Duras)

Music -- Sibylle Baier, Joni Mitchell, Bach, Duo Coplanacu

When I get down in the dumps about a project, I compose rave reviews in my head. Examples: A page turner as written by a lyric poet! or Astute, relentless analysis of an impeccably designed experiment!

the phrase "gender reckless artfield" appeals to you.