CECILIA E. FORD is Professor, College of Letters and Science, English Department and Women's Studies Program at University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. Her research focuses on language as an interactional phenomenon, drawing on conversation analysis as a framework for discovering the ways that humans construct, on a moment-by-moment basis, the social orders that make up our lives - including the provisional and emergent practices we call 'language'. Her research concentrates on turn taking and how humans collaborate and improvise in social interaction, using contingent practices including grammar, sound production, and physical orientations (gesture, gaze, body position).
