I study the interactions between deformation and metamorphism at tectonic plate boundaries, to understand how shear zones initiate and continuously evolve through space and time. I mainly use exhumed rocks -- ancient, fossilized plate boundaries exposed on Earth's surface -- as natural laboratories to constrain the mechanics of long-term and transient deformation. My toolkit includes fieldwork and structural geology, microstructural analysis, metamorphic petrology, geochronology, and experimental mineral deformation. Most of my work has focused on subduction zones, but I'm interested in all kinds of tectonic settings.