Acknowledgments

I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable support that I have received in writing this book: the College of Liberal Arts at Pennsylvania State University (my current home) and the Feinberg Medical School at Northwestern University (where it all began); the various funding agencies who made possible the data collection and analysis on which this book depends: The National Institute on Aging; the Illinois Department of Public Health; and the Alzheimer’s Association. I have also had the benefit of rich collaborations with colleagues, who are of course too many to name. I must mention, however, Madelyn “Micki” Iris, the director of the Leonard Schanfield Research Institute at CJE Senior Life in Chicago and former faculty colleague at Northwestern University. Micki and I have worked together for many years as coinvestigators on grants (and many grant applications!), data collection, data analysis, and numerous shared publications in gerontology. We share roots in anthropology and a deep dedication to the field of gerontology. The data that I used for demonstration purposes and many of my insights about that data come from hours of collaboration with Micki, and I owe her a deep debt of gratitude both as a colleague and as a friend. I would also like to acknowledge my gratitude to the faculty and graduate students of the Department of Applied Linguistics at Penn State University for their wisdom, support, and intellectual camaraderie. Finally, my family has been tremendously supportive throughout the whole process of my writing this book, and I dedicate the effort to them: to my son, Luc, who unwillingly endured fourth grade in Toulouse while I was on sabbatical starting the book, and willingly corrected my halting French!; to my son, Caleb, who reminds me that there’s always another point of view; and to my wife, Sonia, who has always been my best companion and most insightful critic.