Language Education Speaker Series

The Language Education Speaker Series at BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development brings well-known scholars in the field of applied linguistics to campus to discuss their work. These talks are open to all members of the BU community, as well as scholars and students of applied linguistics throughout the Greater Boston area.

Upcoming Events

Already Home: Unearthing Black World Language Teachers’ Cultural, Linguistic and Professional Prowess

Dr. Tasha Austin, SUNY Buffalo

Tuesday, February 25th, 2025
5:00–6:30 pm (ET)

8 Saint Mary’s St., Boston, MA 02215
Room 206
Register to attend here.

While language study has the potential to interrupt naturalized hierarchies of race and language, the absence of Black and racially minoritized teachers in these spaces limits access to our insights for continued generations of language learners. This is in part due to the challenges of navigating world language education in the U.S. The antiBlack economic, housing, and educational policies that were foundational to the formation of the nation presently obscure the potential of Black language learners by limiting their access to language study in various ways. Still, the existence of Black language professionals along with the value of our journeys and pedagogical approaches remains underexplored in language education and world language teacher preparation research. How does the unrealized linguistic and cultural sustenance possible in formal world language study and within language teacher preparation disproportionately harm Black and racially minoritized learners and communities? This talk maps the powerful pathways of Black world language professionals. In elevating our first-person accounts regarding our motivations, navigation strategies and labor in the field, it offers approaches for alleviating our undue burdens and potentially increasing our numbers and impact more broadly.

About Dr. Tasha Austin

Tasha Austin PhD is an assistant professor of teacher education, language education and multilingualism for SUNY Buffalo, Graduate School of Education. As a critical theorist, she engages Black feminist epistemologies to qualitatively examine language, identity and power through a raciolinguistic perspective, investigating the manifestations of antiBlackness in language education. Her dissertation and scholarly publications have been awarded by the American Educational Research Association, New York State Foreign Language Teachers and Northeast Conference on Teaching Foreign Languages. Her research can be found in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Foreign Language Annals and Applied Linguistics among others. As a 2024 NAEd/Spencer Fellow who was previously awarded a Spencer Small Grant for her ongoing study entitled, “Excavating the Oral Histories of Black World Language Teachers” (2024), her scholarship aims to reposition teachers as learners particularly alongside their racially minoritized students with an emphasis upon co-constructing knowledges in language education spaces.

Previous Events in the Series

February 8th, 2024
False Positives, Re-Entry Programs and Long-Term English Learners”: Undoing Dichotomous Frames in U.S. Language Education Policy
Dr. Nelson Flores, University of Pennsylvania

January 29, 2024
Unveiling Bias in Second Language Acquisition Research: A Critical Examination of Convenience Sampling and Implications for Generalizability
Dr. Aline Godfroid, Michigan State University

October 24, 2023
Understanding Wampanoag Culture Through Wôpanâak Language
Dr. Nitana Hicks Greendeer, Brown University

October 5, 2023
¿Soy Acaso Negra?: A Testimonio on the Erasure of Black Latines within, and beyond, Bilingual Education.
Dr. María Cioè-Peña. University of Pennsylvania

April 11, 2023
Researching Language Learning and Multilingualism: From Social Justice to a Decolonial Lens?
Lourdes Ortega, Georgetown University

April 3, 2023
Navigating language learning as a non-binary student: Insights into diverse experiences from participatory research with non-binary youth
Julia Donnelly Spiegelman, UMASS Boston

November 2, 2022
What Effect Do Heritage Languages Have on Majority English in Adolescent and Adult Heritage Speaker Bilinguals?
Shanley Allen, University of Kaiserslautern

September 26, 2022
Biliteracy as Property: The Promise and Perils of Seal of Biliteracy and Dual Language Programming through an Equity Lens
Chris Chang-Bacon, University of Virginia

March 28, 2022
Language Learning Apps: Do They Really Work?
Shawn Loewen, Michigan State University

February 22, 2022
Enacting a Critical Translingual Approach in Teacher Development
Kate Seltzer, Rowan University

November 16, 2021
Measuring L2 Grit Not Once, But Twice, and Exploring How Much Learners Need it to Succeed
Paula Winke, Michigan State University

October 26, 2021
Complex Dynamic Systems Theory—Learning-Centered Teaching
Diane Larsen-Freeman, University of Michigan

February 8, 2021
Shifting the Discourse from Deficit to Difference: Understanding the Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning in Bilingual Learners
Gigi Luk, McGill University