My name is William Justin Morgan. I am a doctoral candidate at The University of Alabama studying Spanish Linguistics with a focus in Second Language Acquisition. The following is a personal "about me". Feel free to learn more about me and who I am both as a person and an academic.

I am originally from Trinity, Alabama. I graduated from The University of North Alabama, where I currently serve as an instructor for the Spanish online courses. I have been incredibly fortunate enough to travel several times, both domestically and internationally. Some of my favorite places in the world are in Costa Rica and Spain. I want to see as many Latin American and European countries as possible and try as many interesting local dishes as possible.

I am an avid volleyball player and community leader for Tuscaloosa, Alabama's recreational volleyball group.

My love for travel stems from my experiences both studying and working abroad at Centro Panamericano de Idiomas (CPI) language immersion school for four years. My administrative position was designed specifically to help study abroad students (and their professors) with their study abroad program during their time in Costa Rica. This was a unique opportunity that helped me discover my passion for language learning, teaching, study abroad, and community service.

One of my passions, which was my initial rationale for working towards higher education, is teaching. There were many professors throughout my collegiate studies that nurtured my love of education and the university environment. I hope, as a professor myself, that I can foster my students' curiosity and personal motivation to advance their professional lives with a global citizen mindset, just as my professors instilled in me.

I am currently finishing my dissertation, which is an interdisciplinary study of mindfulness meditation in accelerated Spanish courses (SP 101 and 102 in one semester) to determine if the mindfulness meditation will help alleviate foreign language anxiety, and increase learners' motivation (which co-construct the broad concept of learners' self-efficacy).

And finally, I have helped co-found a podcast dedicated to showcasing new and exciting graduate student research titled "GradLings Podcast". Our initial goals for creating this podcast centered around providing graduate students with a platform for their innovative and ground-breaking research. Our hope is to bring linguistic research to everyone (well-read or not) so that everyone can have an appreciation for language, second language acquisition, and the diverse ways in which we express ourselves. Check it out in the link below to hear one of our episodes!

Please explore the rest of my professional website to learn about my research, teaching, and service. Below you will see links of the institutions I have referenced in the previous paragraphs, and I am always available should you wish to contact me.