Interdisciplinary collaborations
My education in the liberal arts and pursuit of a field (SLA) that has its origins in various disciplines has made me very aware of the importance of understanding how researchers in different fields ask questions about similar phenomena. As a researcher at a liberal arts college with access to the resources of an R1 institution, I am in the unique position to leverage this synergy into exceptional interdisciplinary research that engages the scholarship of integration from many perspectives. This has led to a number of fruitful collaborations with researchers in psychology, economics, physics, migration studies, literature, women, gender, and sexuality studies, and beyond.
In the realm of education, I have published on issues related to teaching during the pandemic (Surviving or thriving? Experiences and job satisfaction of language instructors in the USA during the COVID-19 pandemic), teacher training in critical language awareness (Developing teachers’ critical language awareness: A case study of guided participation), and specialized language programming for students (SPRICH: Student Provided enRICHment: Building a language community). In addition, I have published on work related to migration, language, and economic outcomes with Dr. Blake from Oxford’s Economics department (Heritage language labor market returns: The importance of speaker density at the state level). He and I are working on other linguistic economics projects as well, including applying gravity-models to various language speaking group economic outcomes in the US. In addition, I am working with Dr. McGee from Oxford’s Psychology department on the effects of alcohol on language use.