Alumni
2026
Rebecca Sawyer
Dissertation: Possibilities and Missed Opportunities: An Analysis of Language Ideologies and Identity Making in the Borderlands of the Spanish World Language Classroom
Dissertation director: Mariana Pacheco
2025
Eric Ho
Dissertation: Space and Temporality in Identity Work: A Chronotopic Analysis of Place and Personhood in Rural China and Uganda
Dissertation director: Margaret Hawkins
2024
José Luis Garrido Rivera
Dissertation: The Role of Semantic Interference in L2 Vocabulary Learning
Dissertation director: Cathy Stafford
Current affiliation: Mercer University
2023
Tim Cavnar
Dissertation: Chinese International Students’ Academic Writing: The Role of Social Networks in Shaping Language Ideologies on a US University Campus
Dissertation director: Kate Vieira
Current affiliation: Michigan Institute for Data & AI in Society, University of Michigan
Hadis Ghaedi
Dissertation: English as Second Language Undergraduate Chinese Students’ Perceptions of Their English Writing Practices and L2 Writing Self in Four Different Writing Contexts of ESL Courses, Academic Major Classes, Personal Pleasure, and Professional Communication
Dissertation director: Monika Chavez
Current affiliation: C0-director, Writing Center and ESL Services at the University of North Carolina.
Scott Stillar
Dissertation: Teaching Whiteness as a Second Language: Raciolinguistic Perspectives on Standardized American English within a Post-Secondary English Language Education Space
Dissertation director: Mariana Pacheco
Current affiliation: Benedictine University
Marina Tsylina
Dissertation: The Perspectives of Learners, Non-Native-Speaker and Native-Speaker Teachers, and Non-Teacher Native Speakers on the Quality of L2 Russian Writing
Dissertation directors: Monika Chavez and Karen Evans-Romaine
Current affiliation: Columbia University
Gordon West
Dissertation: Tracing Global Narratives: Examining Meaning Making and Positioning of Youth in Transnational Digital Communications
Dissertation directors: Maggie Hawkins
Current affiliation: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
2022
Sandra Descourtis
Dissertation: Teaching and Learning French Variations: Attitudes and Beliefs of Educators and Students in Higher Education in the United States
Dissertation directors: Gail Prasad and Kate Vieira
Current affiliation: Emory University
Ryan Goble
Dissertation: The Construction of Language Learners’ Multilingual-Professional Identities and Trajectories in Career Advising Appointments: A Figured Worlds Perspective
Dissertation director: Catherine Stafford
Current affiliation: Language Program Office, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2021
Paul Madden
Dissertation: Ambivalent Perceptions of L2 English: A Case Study of Neoliberal Globalization at an Elite Chinese University
Dissertation director: Francois Tochon
Current affiliation: English Instructor, SusTech Center for Language Education, China
Chen Sun
Dissertation: Personal Histories of Chinese EFL Teachers in Moments of their Language Teaching
Dissertation director: Richard Young
Current affiliation: Lecturer, University of California at Riverside
2020
Sara Farsiu
Dissertation: Migration, Language, and Feelings of Belonging: A Linguistic Ethnography of Iranian Migrants in Germany
Dissertation director: Katrina Thompson
Jennifer Gray
Dissertation: American L1 English Learner Perceptions of the Nativeness Issue in FL Teaching and Its Influence on Future Language Learning Self-perceptions
Dissertation director: Monika Chavez
Bingjie Zheng
Dissertation: Appropriating and Legitimating Chinese-English Dual Language Learning: A Multisite Ethnographic Study of Language Policy, Repertoires, and Socialization
Dissertation director: Maggie Hawkins
Current affiliation: Qualitative UX Researcher, AnswerLab
2019
Sandrine Pell
Dissertation: Franco-Maghrebi Students’ Negotiation of Identities in a Rural French High School
Dissertation director: Richard Young
Kazeem Sanuth
Dissertation: Linguistic Practices and Language Ideology in Yoruba Study Abroad
Dissertation director: Katrina Daly Thompson
Current affiliation: Director of National African Language Resource Center, Indiana University Bloomington
2018
Clara (Bicho) Salto Weis Azevedo
Dissertation: Heritage speakers of Spanish learning to write in their heritage language
Dissertation director: Cathy Stafford
Current affiliation: Assistant Professor of Spanish, University of San Diego
Amy Clay
Dissertation: Constructing Metalinguistic Knowledge about Past Tense Form In L2 French
Dissertation director: Cathy Stafford
Current affiliation: Teaching Assistant Professor and Director of Basic Language for French, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Lauren Goodspeed
Dissertation: In others’ words: Learner practices and perspectives of textual borrowing in the foreign language classroom
Dissertation director: Heather Willis Allen
Current affiliation: Lecturer in French, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Colleen Hamilton
Dissertation: Bilingualism as a Borderlands: Spanish-English Bilingual Youth’s Bilingual Mestiza Consciousness and Designed Schooling Trajectories
Dissertation director: Mariana Pacheco
Current affiliation: Associate Professor of ESL/Bilingual Education, National Louis University
2017
Ya Ju (Alice) Chuang
Dissertation: “Can’t You be More Like Them?”: Imbalanced Cultural Representations of Learners’ Experiences and Identities in Locally-Grown English Textbooks
Dissertation director: François Tochon
Nelly Martin
Dissertation: Bahasa gado-gado in Indonesian popular texts: Expanding Indonesian identities through code-switching with English
Dissertation director: Katrina Daly Thompson
Current affiliation: Research Fellow, School of Social Sciences and Public Policy, Auckland University of Technology
Fatemeh Mirsharifi
Dissertation: Learning a foreign language as ‘strategy’: Attitudes of learners of ‘strategic’ languages (Arabic and Persian) and local heritage languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish) toward foreign language communities
Dissertation director: Monika Chavez
Current affiliation: Assistant Teaching Professor of Persian, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Ae Ree Nam
Dissertation: Exploring Motivation and Persistence in Foreign Language Learning Among Students in University Korean Courses
Dissertation director: Monika Chavez
Current affiliation: Lecturer, Leiden University, Netherlands
Snezhana Zheltoukhova
Dissertation: Tutoring in a Russian Flagship Program: Student and Tutor Perceptions and Their Organizational Representation
Dissertation directors: Karen Evans-Romaine and François Tochon
Current affiliation: Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian and Language Commons Director, Stetson University
2016
Akira Kondo
Dissertation: From Being to Becoming, Becoming to Being: A Critical Examination of Racialized Identities and Language Learning in the United States
Dissertation directors: Maggie Hawkins
Current affiliation: Applied AI, Deloitte Consulting LLP
Margaret Merrill
Dissertation: Communities of Foreign Language Teachers as a Source of Professional Development
Dissertation director: Diana Frantzen
Current affiliation: Senior Instructional Design Consultant, University of California, Davis
2015
Alice Astarita
Dissertation: Social Class and Foreign Language Learning Abstract
Dissertation director: Richard Young
Current affiliation: MiraCosta College
Işıl Erduyan
Dissertation: Multilingual Construction of Identity: German-Turkish Students in Berlin
Dissertation directors: Maggie Hawkins and Jane Zuengler
Current affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Foreign Language Education, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey
2014
Carolina Bernales
Dissertation: ‘Willingness to Participate’ in the Foreign Language Classroom: A Quantitative and Qualitative Study
Dissertation director: Monika Chavez
Current affiliation: Associate Professor, Linguistics Department and core faculty and member of the academic committee in the Doctoral Program in Linguistics, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile
Barbara Bird
Dissertation: No “Burning Desire” to Study Italian Literature: Motivation and Procedural Display in a Third-Year Italian Course
Dissertation director: Diana Frantzen
Current affiliation: Lead Faculty for Italian, Department of World Languages, College of Southern Nevada
Christine Elliott
Dissertation: Locally Situated Literacies and the Challenges of English Language Education in Laos
Dissertation directors: Margaret Hawkins and Jane Zuengler
Current affiliation: Principia College
Shenika Harris
Dissertation: Multicompetence in Foreign Language Writing: Function, Effects, and Beliefs
Dissertation director: Diana Frantzen
Current affiliation: Professor, Spanish, Lindenwood University
Yang Liu
Dissertation: A Study of L2 Chinese Learners’ Motivational Self System
Dissertation director: Richard Young
Chiharu Shima
Dissertation: Language Socialization Process of Indonesian and Filipino Nurses in Japan
Dissertation director: Junko Mori
Current affiliation: Professor, Waseda University, Japan
Sandra Elena Terra
Dissertation: Teachers’ Language Perspectives and Educational Practices in Mozambique: Narratives, Legitimate Spaces and Bilingual Implementation
Dissertation director: Maggie Hawkins
Current affiliation: Associate Professor of Spanish, Linfield University
Elizabeth Tremmel
Dissertation: The Disciplinary Identity Construction of International Graduate Students: Positioning Across Contexts
Dissertation director: Richard Young
Current affiliation: Institute for Writing and Rhetoric, Dartmouth College
2013
Carolina Bailey
Dissertation: English Native Speakers’ L2 Acquisition of the Spanish Clitic Se
Dissertation directors: Catherine Stafford and Yafei Li
Current affiliation: Spanish Instructor, Chair of World Languages Department, Madison College
Anne Dargent-Wallace
Dissertation: Teaching American Culture in France: Language Assistants’ Identity, Construction and Interculturality
Dissertation directors: Sally Magnan and Diana Frantzen
Aree Manosuthikit
Dissertation: Language Ideologies and Practices of a Burmese Community in the U.S.: A Critical Perspective on Multilingualism
Dissertation director: Jane Zuengler
Current affiliation: School of Language and Communication, National Institute of Development Administration, Bangkok, Thailand
Brajesh Samarth
Dissertation: Attrition and Maintenance of Home Languages in the Indian-Diaspora in the United States
Dissertation director: Richard Young
Current affiliation: Teaching Professor and Language Coordinator in Hindi-Urdu, Emory University
2011
Jacques Arceneaux
Dissertation: Learning to Play, Playing to learn: Language Play in Beginning College French
Dissertation director: Sally Magnan
Current affiliation: Instructor of French, Foreign Languages Department, City College of San Francisco
Peter De Costa
Dissertation: The Power of Language Ideologies: Designer Immigrants Learning English in Singapore
Dissertation director: Jane Zuengler
Current affiliation: Professor, Second Language Studies, Michigan State University
María del Carmen De Avila
Dissertation: Spanish Language Shift and the Linguistic Repertoires of Second-Generation Zacatecanos in Chicago
Dissertation director: Diana Frantzen
2010
Paula Garrett-Rucks
Dissertation: Language Learners’ Mediation of Cultural Perspectives Through Online Discussions
Dissertation director: Sally Magnan
Current affiliation: Associate Professor, Second Language Acquisition, World Languages & Culture Coordinator, Georgia State University
Atsushi Hasegawa
Dissertation: Learner Construction of Task-in-Process: A Conversation Analytic Study Semiscripted Peer Interaction
Dissertation director: Sally Magnan and Junko Mori
Current affiliation: Associate Professor of Japanese Language and Linguistics, East Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
Suyeon Kim
Dissertation: Gesture in a Second language: Resources for Communication and Cognitive Mediation
Dissertation director: Mitchell Nathan and Richard Young
Current affiliation: Professor and Director, English Education Center, Anyang University, South Korea
2009
Michele Back
Dissertation: “We Did the Wrong Dance”: Ecuadorian Musicians Negotiating Language and Identity in a Transnational Community
Dissertation director: Richard Young
Current affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum & Instruction, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut
Isabelle Drewelow
Dissertation: The Influence of Instructed Learning on American College Students’ Cultural Assumptions About the French Language and People
Dissertation director: Sally Magnan
Current affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Modern Languages and Classics, University of Alabama
2008
Sookyung Cho
Dissertation: A Sense of Writing: Literacy Among Bicultural Koreans in the United States
Dissertation director: Richard Young and Deborah Brandt
Current affiliation: Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea
2006
Jina Lee
Dissertation: Talking to the Self: Private Speech by Adult Korean-English Bilinguals
Dissertation director: Richard Young
Current affiliation: Professor, Chair of the Department of English Education, Sangmyung University, South Korea
Robin Worth
Dissertation: Learner Resistance in the Foreign Language Classroom
Dissertation directors: Sally Sieloff Magnan and Thomas D. Cravens
Current affiliation: Scientist, Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative, Consortium for Policy Research in Education, Wisconsin Center for Education Research