Curriculum Vitae

My background is primarily in teaching English as a foreign language, though I have studied four languages in three different language families. I was a language teacher for four years overseas before beginning my graduate work at Georgia State University. I earned my MA and PhD in Applied Linguistics in 2013, and my dissertation focused on identity, motivation, and literacy in young learners of Arabic. Much of the other research I did during my doctoral program dealt with identity and community in an online course, so I had read, thought, analyzed empirical data, and written about the challenges and priorities of distance learning. My dissertation focused on young learners of a less-commonly-taught language, which aligns with our learners' goals. Finally, I had taught English as a second language, language teaching methods, and sociolinguistics to undergraduate and graduate students at Georgia State University, so there was specific precedent for designing and implementing courses at this level.

Since then, I have continued to write about identity and collect data on social and cultural aspects of language learning and on teacher development. I have presented at national conferences including the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL), the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), the National Council for Less-Commonly-Taught Languages (NCOLCTL), and the Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO), and I have given workshops in the professional development series of MSU's Center for Language Teaching Advancement as well as general teacher training and a three-day workshop on teaching heritage learners at other schools. My full CV is provided below.