2024 Elected Candidate Bios

2nd Vice President

Francis Hult, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)

Francis M. Hult is Professor of Education and by courtesy of Public Policy and Language, Literacy, and Culture at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) where he also directs the TESOL graduate program. Growing up bilingual in a Swedish family in the United States, his lifelong personal experiences with bilingualism and transnationalism inform his work at the crossroads of education, discourse studies, and sociolinguistics. He holds a Ph.D. in educational linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. in TESOL and French education from New York University, where he also completed his undergraduate studies in French, linguistics, and anthropology. He later earned docent, a Nordic qualification similar to a higher doctorate or a habilitation, at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. Hult has been a UNESCO senior visiting scholar, a Charles A. Ferguson Fellow at the Center for Applied Linguistics, and a visiting professor at a number of institutions, including the National Institute of Education in Singapore and the Education University of Hong Kong.

Hult’s research focuses on multilingualism in policy and practice, investigating ideological dimensions of national and institutional language policies, policy formation and implementation, engagement with policy discourses by social actors, and visual language use in multilingual communities. His work draws upon methodological and theoretical foundations in (critical) discourse analysis, ethnography of communication, linguistic landscape analysis, and nexus analysis. He has written widely on these areas in leading journals and published several books, including the Handbook of Educational Linguistics (with Bernard Spolsky), Educational Linguistics in Practice (with Kendall King), Research Methods in Language Policy and
Planning (with David Cassels Johnson), and Language Policy and Language Acquisition Planning (with Maarja Siiner and Tanja Kupisch).

His leadership in the field includes over 20 years of managing the Educational Linguistics (Edling) list, a forum for discussion and posting current events about language and education, which he founded in 2003. More recently, he became director of the Consortium for Language Policy and Planning, previously housed at the University of Pennsylvania under the leadership of Harold Schiffman, an international network of researchers for which he also manages the Language Policy (LgPolicy) list. Hult also serves as editor of the Educational Linguistics book series published by Springer, and together with Ofelia García as editor of the Contributions to the Sociology of Language book series published by De Gruyter. He sits on the editorial boards of nine major journals as well as on the boards of the Center for Applied Linguistics, the Language
Policy Research Network (LPReN), and the Esperantic Studies Foundation. As an advocate for multilingualism and language rights, he has consulted for a variety of organizations including the Language Council of Norway, the Swedish Agency for Education, the Swedish Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools, and the United Nations.

An active member of AAAL for over 20 years, his first service contribution to the organization was as a member of the ad hoc marketing committee for the joint AAAL and ACLA/CAAL conference held in Montréal in 2006. Since then, he has regularly reviewed for the Educational Linguistics (EDU); Language Policy and Planning (LPP); and Language, Culture, Socialization,
and Pragmatics (LCS) strands and coordinated the EDU strand on multiple occasions. He served on the task force to expand the scope of AAAL awards, going on to become the inaugural chair of the book award committee. Most recently, he served a three-year term on the mentoring committee to provide guidance to doctoral students at the annual conference.

Treasurer

Paula Winke, Michigan State University

My name is Paula Winke, and I am the inaugural “Arts and Letters Professor” at Michigan StateUniversity (MSU). I teach courses on language testing and individual differences in SLA. I research language testing methods, factors that affect test performance, and ethics and fairness in language testing. I am currently serving my fourth year of a four-year term as Director of the Second Language Studies Ph.D. Program at MSU. I finished a 5-year co-editorship of the international journal “Language Testing” in December of 2023. I am the Co-PI on a $220K federal STARTALK grant program at MSU, which trains K-12 Chinese-language immersion teachers on language assessment and curricular planning. Since my current program directing, co-editorship, and grant-co-directing tasks have looming (and very near!) coinciding end dates, I have had time to pause and think about the work that I enjoy tremendously: It is the financial planning, organizing, and strategizing that is involved in program and grant management. This is why I am seeking election as the AAAL Treasurer. I believe I excel at the detailed and delicate communication strategies that are necessary for fundraising and financial-planning. I am a stickler for budgeting accurately and transparently, which I think helps foster healthy and clear communications regarding program growth and financial planning. And I believe strongly in the mission of AAAL, which includes promoting applied linguists’ scholarly development and professional advancement.

Prior work has prepared me to be AAAL’s Treasurer: In the past, I have been the Principal Investigator on a 1.4 million dollar federal “Language Proficiency Flagship” grant at MSU, which ran from 2014 to 2019. I served on the Educational Testing Service’s Committee of Examiners 2014 through 2017 and served as Chair of the TOEFL Research Subcommittee in 2016, both of which involved learning about Six-Sigma (strategies for improving administrative work flow) and fiscal review. I have worked on AAAL's Conference Organizing Committee and as Chair of the AAAL Nominating Committee. Those experiences, combined with annual attendance at AAAL and its business meetings, have shown me that I would like to become more involved with the financial side of AAAL, as I believe the experience would be engaging, impactful, and fulfilling.

I have been attending AAAL for almost 20 years (since starting as a graduate student at Georgetown University in 2000) and have presented papers, posters, and colloquium talks over those years. In 2023, I was a AAAL Plenary Speaker, a true highlight of my career as an applied linguist. I have twice been invited to organize AAAL colloquia: In 2016, I organized a colloquium with Susan Gass on proficiency assessment. In 2019, Aline Godfroid and I were invited to host a colloquium on eye-tracking methodologies in SLA research: Aline and I obtained a 10K grant from the Language Learning Research Club to support the colloquium presenters’ travel to AAAL. I was on the organizing committee for AAAL in 2016: I served with Lucy Pickering, who was AAAL’s Pre-Conference Workshop Chair, to organize that year’s AAAL pre-conference workshops. In 2018, I was an invited presenter within a special AAAL professional development session on public advocacy and media engagement. In 2018 through 2021, I served on the AAAL Nominating Committee, and I was the Chair of the AAAL Nominating Committee in 2019-2020. In 2020, I was presented with the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Research Article of the Year Award.

JEDI Officer 

Usree Bhattacharya, University of Georgia

Usree Bhattacharya is an Associate Professor in the TESOL and World Languages program within the Language and Literacy Education Department at the University of Georgia. She earned her PhD in Education from the University of California, Berkeley in 2013, and has prior degrees from three countries. Her research is inspired by questions of diversity, equity, and access in multilingual educational contexts. A primary aim of her work is to illuminate the role of discourses, ideologies, and everyday practices in the (re)production of hierarchical relations within educational systems. Following her daughter Kalika’s diagnosis of Rett Syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder, in 2018, Dr.Bhattacharya has directed her research towards language and literacy socialization in severe, complex disabilities.

Dr. Bhattacharya has been an active participant in the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) since 2011, presenting her work extensively and assuming various leadership roles to advance justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) issues within the organization. Her commitment to social justice is evident in all her scholarly and professional endeavors. One of her key contributions, the co-authored article “Race, Representation, and Diversity in the American Association for Applied Linguistics,” published in Applied Linguistics (2019), examined the representation of scholars of color
within AAAL. The work argued that cultivating greater racial diversity within AAAL is imperative for highlighting issues of race and inequality in applied linguistics; in expanding the epistemological field; and, ultimately, in sustaining its vibrancy and strength as an organization. In AAAL, her roles have included service on the Resolutions Committee (2023-’24) and the Ad-Hoc JEDI Committee (2023), where she has advocated for institutional change. Her tenure as Co-Strand and Strand Coordinator (2022, 2021, and 2017), especially for the Antiracism, Decolonization, and Intersectionality strand, was marked by a strong focus on ensuring diversity among reviewers and inclusivity in conference discussions. Furthermore, her involvement in the Mentoring Diversity Committee (2018) and in organizing conference sessions has solidified her commitment to equity. Notably, her initiative in successfully nominating the first scholar of color for the Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award in 21 years reflects her dedication to recognizing and celebrating diversity and excellence in the AAAL community. In conclusion, Dr. Bhattacharya’s active engagement in research, leadership, and advocacy efforts within AAAL exemplifies her unwavering dedication to enriching applied linguistics by emphasizing inclusivity and elevating diverse voices and perspectives.

Throughout her tenure with the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL), Dr. Bhattacharya has dedicated herself to advancing its mission, with a strong focus on educational equity, multilingualism, and disability issues through both her presentations and in various leadership roles. Her engagement as a speaker at AAAL conferences, totaling eight presentations, has consistently forefronted these interests. Through her scholarship, she has highlighted critical areas such as disability studies within applied linguistics, the implications of multilingualism in education, and the intersections of language, race, and identity, thereby contributing to a broader understanding and appreciation of diversity within the field.
In addition to her scholarly contributions, her service roles include membership on the Resolutions Committee (2023-’24) and the Ad-Hoc JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) Committee (2023), where she has strongly advocated for systemic change. As Co-Strand Coordinator (2022) and Strand Coordinator (2021 and 2017) for the annual conference (especially for the Antiracism, Decolonization, and Intersectionality for Systemic Transformation strand), she has worked to ensure a diverse range of reviewers and inclusivity in discussions. Her efforts to promote diversity continued as a Member of the Mentoring Diversity Committee (2018) and through organizing sessions at AAAL, further solidifying her commitment to equity. Her initiative in successfully nominating the first scholar of color for the Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award underscores her dedication to celebrating and recognizing excellence and diversity within the community

Member-at-Large

Yumi Matsumoto, University of Pennsylvania

I am an associate professor in the Educational Linguistics division of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. My research interests include English as a lingua franca, multilingual classroom discourse, multimodal conversation analysis, laughter and humor construction, applying complex dynamic systems theory perspectives for analyzing classroom interaction, and linguistic landscape studies. Particularly, my core research examines how multilingual international students at U.S. universities coordinate diverse multimodal resources for communicating with instructors and other students. As a key part of that work, I illustrate the complex ways that students use multilingual, multimodal resources to negotiate and transform academic English norms within university classrooms. 

My affiliation with AAAL dates back to my time as a graduate student, when I began attending the annual conference regularly. Over the years, I have presented my own research and organized colloquia in collaboration with researchers inside and beyond my areas of expertise. For AAAL 2024, I was thrilled to be an invited colloquium organizer. The colloquium I convened, Exploring Multilingualism from Diverse Research and Methodological Perspectives: Enacting Equitable Multilingualism, engaged in transdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration among applied linguists who work in divergent areas—including multilingual writing/composition, language assessment, linguistic landscape, and foreign/world language education—for our shared goal of achieving multilingualism in education and beyond. 

I have been involved in AAAL in other ways as well. Since 2016, I have served as an abstract reviewer for the Second Language Acquisition, Language Acquisition, and Attrition (SLA) strand and the Language, Culture, Socialization, and Pragmatics (LCS) strand; in 2019-2020, I was LCS strand coordinator. More recently, I was initially involved in planning the AAAL 2024 conference with Conference Chair Dr. Ryuko Kubota and members Dr. Manka Varghese and Dr. Nihat Polat. As part of that work, I contributed ideas for making the conference more meaningful and inclusive for a wide range of conference attendees with diverse research backgrounds. 

My engagement and participation in AAAL have shaped me as a researcher, educator, and scholar. I have met fellow members who have become my mentors, research collaborators, and even dear friends. Indeed, the strength and breadth of these relationships across applied linguistics and education are qualities that I would bring to the member-at-large position, enabling me to work collaboratively with colleagues from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds and to lead ad hoc committee work effectively. It would be an honor to serve as a member-at-large if given the opportunity.

I have served as an abstract reviewer for the two strands—Second Language Acquisition, Language Acquisition, and Attrition (SLA) and Language, Culture, Socialization, and Pragmatics (LCS) since 2016. I also served as strand coordinator of LCS for a few years (2019-2020), communicating with and managing all the strand reviewers’ work effectively.  Furthermore, I was also involved with the initial preparation and planning of the AAAL 2024 conference with Conference Chair Dr. Ryuko Kubota and members Dr. Manka Varghese and Dr. Nihat Polat, contributing ideas to make the conference more meaningful and inclusive for a wide range of conference attendees with diverse research interests. Since my research deals with both cognitive and social approaches to second language learning and development, I am able to recognize the importance of incorporating diverse voices and perspectives of applied linguists. 

Fund for the Future of Applied Linguistics
(FFAL) Trustee

Chantelle Warner, University of Arizona

Chantelle Warner (Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley) is Professor of German Studies and Second Language Acquisition and Teaching at the University of Arizona. Since 2014, she has directed the German Language Program, which encompasses the first two years of study. She is also the co-director for the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL), a National Language Resource Center, and this year is serving as the Acting Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Humanities at the University of Arizona. She just ended a four-year position as one of the executive committee members for the Applied Linguistics forum at the Modern Language Association.

Dr. Warner’s research focuses on affective, experiential, and aesthetic dimensions of language teaching and learning and foreign language literacy development, and critical multilingualism studies and she has published and presented widely across these areas. Her forthcoming book project argues for an expansion of models of literacy development and related pedagogies in second language teaching and learning to better integrate not only a wider range practices and modalities, but also different aesthetic and feeling rules that tacitly shape our responses to different language uses. She is also currently co-editing an applied linguistics handbook for language educators, which is designed as an introductory guide for pre- and newly in-service teachers. Most recently she has begun to consider the role of emotion labor in language teaching, and how it is discursively constructed by both instructors and their students in their understandings of what constitutes good teaching and learning. 

As a language program director for nearly 50 graduate student instructors and faculty advisor for 18 PhD and MA students over the last 15 years, Dr. Warner has been consistently committed to graduate student development. She has seen the value of investing in the futures of early career scholars during their studies, and the need for sustained support in the financial climate of today.

Dr. Warner has been a longtime member and regular presenter at AAAL. She has also served as an abstract reviewer for the conference. She has not yet held an official service position within AAAL. Perhaps her most important role in the last decade has been in supporting graduate students in successfully submitting their talks and being ready to present them before the rich, transdisciplinary community that is AAAL. Serving as a member of the FFAL would be an opportunity to formalize these kinds of graduate student support activities into a more official role, while also supporting AAAL’s mission to promote high-quality and impactful research, professional networking, and intellectual development in all areas of applied linguistics.

Nominating Committee Member

James Coda, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)

I am currently an Assistant Professor of ESL and World Language Education and Program Coordinator of World Language Education in the Department of Theory and Practice of Teacher Education in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). I earned a doctorate in Language and Literacy Education with an emphasis in TESOL and World Language Education from the University of Georgia in 2020. My professional experience spans K-12 as well as adult and higher education world language and ESOL contexts. My research interests include LGBTQIA+ issues in language teaching and learning, gender and sexuality in education, queer theories and pedagogies, and teacher identity. 

Since becoming a member of AAAL in 2017 during my doctoral program, the organization has been paramount in my professional development as a scholar and educator. In prior service to AAAL, I have served on the Graduate Student Council (GSC) in various roles, such as a member of the social media subcommittee, member-at-large (social media), and GSC co-chair. Since 2020, I have been a member of the social media subcommittee of the Online Education and Outreach Committee (OEOC). In seeking to be elected for the Nominating Committee, my prior service to AAAL on the GSC, my current service on the OEOC, and my role as a program coordinator at UTK position me well to undertake the responsibilities of serving on the Nominating Committee. As this position will encompass working alongside the other members of the Nominating Committee to prepare a list of nominees for various positions in AAAL, my knowledge of the organization gained from my service within AAAL will be beneficial to the aims of the committee. Moreover, as the Standing Rules emphasize justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in all facets of the Nominating Committee’s work, my scholastic endeavors related to challenges to cisheteronormativity and LGBTQIA+ issues in language teaching and learning will ensure that the work that I accomplish on the Nominating Committee foregrounds justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. In sum, my prior and current involvement in AAAL as well as my scholastic and personal pursuits are well-suited for election to the Nominating Committee. 

Since joining AAAL, I have had the privilege to serve in numerous roles on the Graduate Student Council (GSC): social media subcommittee member, member-at-large (social media), and co-chair. During my time on the GSC, I also served AAAL in other capacities, such as a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Online Education and Outreach, Virtual Conferencing Task Force, and Future Fund for Applied Linguistics (FFAL). More recently, I have served on the social media subcommittee of the Online Education and Outreach Committee. 

As a member-at-large of the GSC, I gained valuable experience related to managing social media platforms, and I engaged in the development of the GSC’s YouTube channel. As the co-chair of the GSC, collaboration was paramount in co-organizing an event with my GSC team as well as with another AAAL member for local high school students from underrepresented backgrounds to attend the 2020 conference in Denver. More recently, on the social media subcommittee of the Online Education and Outreach Committee, I have worked alongside my colleagues to increase our member engagement via social media. In sum, my past and current roles in AAAL have cultivated my own leadership development while also providing service to the organization. 

Nominating Committee Member

Prem Phyak, Teachers College, Columbia University

I am interested in serving to the nomination committee. I am an associate professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. I have worked in Tribhuvan University (Nepal) and The Chinese University of Hong Kong before joining Teachers College. My areas of expertise include language policy, language ideology, multilingualism, and multilingual education, decolonial and Indigenous language education, and social justice and equity in language education. Taking critical and engaged approaches, my work focuses on unpacking and transforming hegemonic language ideologies, policies, and practices to create space for Indigenous and minoritized languages through community engagement and participatory action research. I co-authored a book Engaged Language Policy and Practices (Routledge); co-edited a volume Multilingual Education in South Asia (Routledge) and published several papers and book chapters.

I am involved in AAAL for more than a decade. I have a close understanding about the vision, mission, and activities of AAAL. Coming from an Indigenous community in the Global South, I can contribute to the committee and the organization in its efforts to promote social justice and equity. I will use my critical understanding about the applied linguistics scholarship to ensure equal representation of the identities, epistemologies, and voices of the members from diverse sociopolitical, linguistic, racial/ethnic, and regional backgrounds. 

Currently, I am the chair of the Resolution Committee. I have also worked as a member for the committee. I also represent AAAL in the editorial board of Annual Review of Applied Linguistics. I have served the organization as a strand coordinator of Language and Ideology for the past three annual conferences. In addition, I have reviewed proposals for the annual conferences for past six years

Nominating Committee Member

Gail Prasad , York University

Gail Prasad is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University in Toronto, Canada. She earned her Ph.D. at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto in 2015 and completed a research fellowship at the Université Paul-Valéry III in Montpellier, France. Before returning to Canada, Dr. Prasad held a faculty position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Department of Curriculum & Instruction and the Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition.  Her research examines children, youth, teachers and families’ social representations of linguistic diversity, as well as critical, creative and collaborative approaches to teaching and learning for critical multilingual language awareness in the classroom and beyond.  Her work and research at the intersection of multilingualism and education spans 20 years across Canada, the United States, France, Kenya and Burkina Faso. She is a co-editor of Multilingualism & Education: Researchers’ Pathways and Perspectives (2022), published by Cambridge University Press. Other publications appear in English and French journals including but not limited to TESOL Quarterly, the International Journal of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education and glottopol. 

She began attending AAAL as a graduate student and has been an active member and presenter over the past decade.  She has served for many years as an abstract reviewer, as a member of the AAAL Dissertation Award Committee and as a strand coordinator.   Dr. Prasad’s record of professional service also includes leadership as a Board Member of the Canadian Modern Language Review and service as an active reviewer for many journals in the areas of applied linguistics, multiliteracies, qualitative arts-based methods and education. Dr. Prasad is committed to amplifying AAAL’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice work and to supporting the Association’s international perspective with efforts to broaden representation of a greater diversity of languages at conferences and in the dissemination of scholarship and outreach.

Nominating Committee Member

Kevin Wong, Pepperdine University

Kevin Wong 黃浩文博士 is an Assistant Professor and Chair of the MA in TESOL program at Pepperdine University. He received his Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning at New York University, specializing in literacy education for multilingual learners. Dr. Wong’s research is informed by his biracial, trilingual upbringing in Hong Kong where he was a public elementary/primary school teacher. Now at Pepperdine, he directs the Multilingual, Multiracial, Multicultural Education Research Group, examining raciolinguistic ideologies and identity among students (with a particular interest in Multiracial individuals); language learning in ESL/EFL, dual language immersion, and digital contexts; and humanizing pedagogies and methodologies in applied linguistics research.

Dr. Wong has co-edited special issues in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, RELC Journal and FIRE, and has published over 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals like AERA Open, Computer Assisted Language Learning, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Journal of Educational Psychology, and System. In 2020, he received the 2020 Paul R. Pintrich Dissertation Award from the American Psychological Association. He also received the 2022 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Educational Research Association Early Education and Child Development SIG. Dr. Wong has been a finalist for the Spencer Foundation’s Racial Equity grant and a semi-finalist for the NAEd/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Since 2016, Dr. Wong has been an active member of AAAL, annually contributing as an attendee and speaker, serving on panels and organizing colloquia. Beyond speaking, he has participated in the AAAL Conference Connections program as a mentor and mentee, and actively engaged in the Graduate Student Council as a student and later a panelist to support early-career academics navigating the job market. Dr. Wong has served as a conference reviewer for three AAAL strands and presented in six different strands, reflecting his commitment to interdisciplinary work within applied linguistics. His proactive involvement in various research strands and his dedication to JEDI principles reflect his understanding of the diverse needs within applied linguistics, ensuring he has the insight to offer a slate of candidates that not only aligns with AAAL's commitment to excellence but also embodies the inclusive future the organization strives to achieve. 

Book Award Committee Member

Shelley Staples , Northern Arizona University

Dr. Shelley Staples (PhD in Applied Linguistics, Northern Arizona University, 2014) is Associate Professor of English Applied Linguistics/Second Language Acquisition and Teaching at University of Arizona. Her research focuses on the use of corpus-based discourse analysis (qualitative and quantitative computational text analysis) to investigate language use across spoken and written contexts. The purpose of her research is to understand how linguistic variation is related to situational factors and speaker characteristics, including register, first language, cultural background, and proficiency levels of second language speakers. In addition, her research aims to inform language teaching and assessment, particularly in the areas of English for Academic and Specific Purposes (EAP/ESP), which focus on teaching and learning in specific contexts. Her current projects focus on academic writing and health care communication. Dr. Staples has been a member of AAAL since 2011 and has presented at nearly every conference since then. She received the Graduate Student Award in 2014, was nominated for the first book award in 2016, and was a member of the Ethics Task Force (Peter de Costa, Chair, 2016-2018). She served as strand coordinator for Corpus Linguistics in 2017 and has reviewed for that strand 2018-2020. She also participated in the Conference Connections mentorship program 2019-2021 and 2023. Outside of AAAL, she is currently a member of five editorial boards (including Applied Linguistics) and served as the TESOL Quarterly Brief Reports co-editor from 2019-2022. She is a frequent reviewer of book manuscripts for publishers such as Cambridge University Press, among other academic presses such as Springer and Wiley Blackwell.

Book Award Committee Member

Meike Wernicke, University of British Columbia

I am a settler scholar and Assistant Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia, Canada. As a member of AAAL since 2010, I have presented annually on my research on French language teacher professionalization in minority language contexts, bi-/multilingual language policy, critical intercultural studies, and discourse analytic research methodologies. In my work I draw on decolonizing approaches and anti-racist perspectives to center equitable language practices in initial teacher education and teacher professional learning. Current projects focus on multilingual policy-in-education of second and minority languages and a pan-Canadian collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars to advance and support Indigenous language revitalization across all language education programs in Canada in respectful ways.

I served five years (2016-2020) on the executive of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics as Communications Officer and frequently advise on French language teacher education and official language policy for the British Columbia Ministry of Education and Canadian government committees. My publications include a 2019 special issue in TESL Canada Journal, a co-edited volume published with Multilingual Matters in 2021, and refereed articles and chapters published in English and French, including in System, the Applied Linguistics Review, and the Canadian Modern Language Review.

As a member of the AAAL Book Award Committee I would welcome the opportunity to contribute to the association’s commitment to equity and diversity by advocating a plurality of knowledges and methodologies and the inclusion of authors from minoritized and underrepresented backgrounds as well as those who write in English and other languages.

Research Article Award Committee Member

Wenhao Diao, University of Arizona

Dr. Wenhao Diao (Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University) is an Associate Professor of East Asian Studies and Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) at the University of Arizona, where she founded and co-directs the Center for East Asian Studies, a Title VI National Resources Center supported by the U.S. Department of Education. She is also an Area Editor for the journal Linguistic Vanguard. Dr. Diao’s research deals with the identities and ideologies that are (re)produced and (re)distributed through language learning and teaching, with a particular focus on Chinese. She uses mostly qualitative and/or mixed-methods approaches in her research, and her main research areas include language learning and identity during study abroad, and world language teachers’ identity and affect in the U.S. K-16 contexts. Her work has appeared on Applied Linguistics, the Modern Language Journal, System, among others. She is the co-editor of Language learning in Study Abroad: The Multilingual Turn (Multilingual Matters, 2021), and the guest co-editor of a special issue of the L2 Journal entitled Study Abroad in the 21st Century (2016). 

Dr. Diao has served on the AAAL nominating committee in 2022. Prior to that, she co-coordinated reviews for the SLA strand for three AAAL annual conferences. She was a member of the AAAL family-friendliness ad hoc committee, which advocated for equal access to the AAAL conferences for parents – and particularly women with young children. She also worked on the taskforce committee that revised the AAAL Promotion and Tenure Guidelines in 2019. The resulting guidelines incorporated more diverse criteria of evaluation, such as venues for publication for applied linguists who work on languages other than English. She looks forward to serving the applied linguists’ community again! 

Research Article Award Committee Member

Angelica Galante, McGill University 

Dr. Angelica Galante is an Assistant Professor in Language Education at McGill University and Director of the Plurilingual Lab. She has served Applied Linguistics Associations in several capacities: 1) at AAAL, she has been Member and Chair of the Graduate Student Award committee, co-Coordinator of the Second and Foreign Language Pedagogy (PED) Conference Strand; 2) at the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics (ACLA), she is the current President; and 3) at the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA), she has been a Member of the Solidarity Awards. At McGill, Dr. Galante currently serves as a Member of the Prizes and Awards Committee and reviewer of research projects that will be funded by the Canadian funding agency Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

As a multilingual user (Portuguese, Spanish, English, French) and a Latina from Brazil living in Canada, her research areas are inherently linked to her identity: discrimination and empowerment among multilingual users, plurilingual and decolonial pedagogies in second and foreign language programs, and multilingual research methods, including qualitative and mixed methods. Dr. Galante has been recognized with several awards, including the Pat Clifford Award by the EdCan Network for excellence in educational research and the 2018 AAAL Graduate Student Award (Multilingual Matters). Her award-winning multilingual research has been published in top-tier journals such as Applied Linguistics, TESOL Quarterly, International Journal of Multilingualism, International Journal of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, System, and Applied Linguistics Review. Dr. Galante is also the co-editor of the Routledge Studies in Plurilingualism. Her international experience in multilingual research and leadership in awards committees at AAAL, AILA and ACLA will bring contributions to the Research Article Award Committee with a broad perspective of research in different contexts/traditions, as well as research methods in multilingual research.